
Glass. 

Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




^S-^^^c^^^iy^^v^^ 



W$t Question of tfje 
Centuries 



Some sermons on personal 
relationship of the disciple 
to the Kingdom of Heaven. 



BY 

ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR, 

Pastor since 1870 of the 
Calvary Baptist Church, New York. 



Copyrighted 1905 and published by 
F. M. BARTON, CLEVELAND, OHIO. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

DEC 20 1905 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS CX XXc. No, 

/ 3 3 6 93 

COPY B. 



13X^333 



CONTENTS. 



The Question of the Centuries 

The Pre-Eminence of Christ 

The Glorious Metamorphosis 

The Three-fold Life 

The New Creation 

The Winning Race 

The Constraining Love 

The Raising of Lazarus 

The Inspiring Look 

The Magi and the Christ - 



5—15 
16—26 
27—35 
36—43 
44—51 
52—59 
60—68 
69—77 
78—85 
86—94 



The Question of the Centuries 

TEXT: MATT. 22:42, "What think ye of Christ?" 

THEEE OBJECTS, partly natural and partly architect- 
ural, I have seen which meet the reasonable expectations 
aroused by the descriptions of travelers — the Alhambra, 
in Granada, Spain; the Japan Sea, and the glorious Taj Mahal, 
in Agra, India. Three works of artistic genius, each superb 
of its kind, have I seen which satisfy reasonable expectations 
Kaphael 's ' ' Transfiguration, ' % Canova 's ' l Penitent Magdalen ' \ 
and the mysterious Sphinx. Three products of literary skill 
have I read, each almost perfect of its kind, Shakespeare's 
1 ' Hamlet, ' ' Milton 's ' i Paradise Lost, ' ' and Tennyson 's i ( In 
Memoriam. ' J Three men have I studied, magnificent, majestic 
and well-nigh matchless— Moses, the Lawgiver; Paul, the Apos- 
tle, and Luther, the Eef ormer. 

But no one of these objects of nature or works of art, and 
no one of these men, was ideal. The ideal man has not yet 
been discovered. Humboldt, who traveled far, saw much and 
felt more, recorded in his diary this sentence, "The finest fruit 
earth holds up to its Maker is a man." It is here implied 
that this finest fruit is the ideal man. But Humboldt did not 
affirm that he had ever found this man. The ideal man has 
not yet been discovered among those who are mere men. No 
one of our noblest men was a spotless sun; no one reached sin- 
less perfection. From all our loftiest specimens of manhood I 
turn dissatisfied to Jesus Christ, and in him I find that the 
ideal becomes actual, the dream real, and the hope fruition. 
What Mount Tabor is, rising abruptly in its unique symmetry 
and beauty from the northeastern arm of the plain of Esdrae- 
lon, that Jesus Christ is, rising in insulated grandeur and spot- 
less perfection above the plain reached by the noblest men of 
all the centuries. 



6 The Question of the Centuries 

What Mount Blanc as the king of the Alps is, lifting its 
crystal domes and towers 15,781 feet above the level of the 
Mediterranean Sea, compared with the other snow-clad and 
cloud-kissed mountains of the Alps, that Jesus Christ is com- 
pared with the loftiest men who have risen as mountain 
heights above their fellows through all the ages. What the 
Himalaya Eange, the most elevated and stupendous mountain 
system on the globe, sweeping across historic lands as far as 
from New York to Chicago and back to New York, and ris- 
ing so high that the superb Matterhorn, if lifted bodily and 
placed upon the Jungfrau, would not reach the glittering 
Himalayan heights, that and more Jesus Christ is to the long 
line of men who have risen highest in moral grandeur in the 
history of the human race. Jesus Christ is the pearl and 
crown of humanity; he is the loftiest specimen of manhood the 
race has produced; he is the fullest manifestation of divinity 
God has given the world; he is the effulgence of God's glory, 
and the very image of his substance. He rises in unapproach- 
able glory, not only above men, but also above saints and 
seraphs, and above angels and archangels. Gazing upon him 
we can exclaim with inexpressible enthusiasm and unutterable 
ecstasy ' ' Ecce Homo ! ' ' and, with the same breath and with 
equal truth, we can also reverently exclaim, ' ' Ecce Deus ! ? ' 

The question of my text, "What think ye of Christ V now 
presses upon our consideration. The setting of this text is 
instructively suggestive. For some time in his discussion with 
the Pharisees our Lord had been acting on the defensive. Both 
Sadducees and Pharisees had been asking him questions. His 
answers put the Sadducees to silence, and their confusion 
greatly gratified the Pharisees. It is now their turn to ex- 
perience similar confusion from the celerity and dexterity of 
his replies. Never was there so skillful a debater as Jesus 
Christ. He was masterful in his clarity of thought, simplicity 
of speech, and purity of motive. 

In the case before us he passes from the defensive to the 
offensive, and he convicts Scribes and Pharisees of entertain- 
ing false views of the Messiah. They had disputed his claims 
as a spiritual Messiah, and he now shows the irreconcilable con- 
tradiction between their view of him as a mere worldly Mes- 



"What Think Ye of Christ?" 7 

siah and the teaching of their own prophetic scriptures. They 
were silenced and even stunned by his rapid, aggressive, and 
unanswerable attack. We are significantly told that i ' no man 
was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from 
that day forth ask him any more questions. ' ' 

It must, doubtless, be admitted that there are men in every 
community, and possibly there are some in this congregation, 
who have no definite convictions regarding Jesus Christ. It 
seems almost incredible that in a community of culture and 
Christianity men and women should be found who have not 
reached definite conclusions regarding the person and char- 
acter of Christ. I put then the question to you with the utmost 
directness, "What think ye of the Christ? 7 ' This is the 
broadest, deepest and loftiest question ever put to the human 
race. This is the question of all the ages. This question 
virtually engaged the thought of Abraham; it evoked a 
response from Moses; and it stirred the deepest emotions and 
loftiest praises of David as he swept his lyre and sang his 
immortal songs. 

My friend, the late Dr. Charles S. Eobinson, once told me in 
his study, while we were discussing this text, that he asked a 
prominent business man what he thought of the Christ, and 
the man replied frankly, "I suppose I never do think of 
Jesus Christ." Then Dr. Eobinson inquired when he was 
born, and he gave the date, 1843. "B. C. or A. TJ.V the 
doctor asked. The man remained silent in his confusion. 
Here was a man who had been dating letters for many years, 
and was thus commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, and 
living in a world whose civilization is radiant with the glory 
of Christ, and yet he frankly acknowledged that he had no 
definite thoughts regarding this unique personage. 

This was a humiliating confession for this man to make. 
Such a confession in this century argues some degree of social 
inferiority, intellectual inanity, and moral vacuity. It is 
astounding that men professing even average intelligence 
should not have reached well-defined views of the character of 
Jesus the Christ. His birthday gave the race a new era, and 
every man who dates a letter or a ledger pays tribute to his 
nativity. His life and teaching are shaping the literature, the 



8 The Question of the Centuries 

art, the architecture and the music of the world. His spirit 
has given us our immortal paintings, and his hand has virtu- 
ally carved the greatest figures in the modern galleries of 
sculpture throughout the world. He has inspired the sublimest 
oratories of Bach, of Handel, of Haydn, of Mozart, of Bee- 
thoven and of Mendelssohn. Jesus Christ has created a new 
world along all the lines of art, music, architecture and litera- 
ture for time and eternity. He is the most puissant force 
known among men since the creation of the race. The man 
who has no convictions concerning Jesus Christ is intellect- 
ually and morally an equally pitiful and reprehensive creature. 
He is no honor to any circle in life in which he moves. 

In this congregation there are' no hearers unwilling to admit 
that Jesus Christ is at least a great historic character. They 
frankly admit that he was born at Bethlehem, brought up at 
Nazareth, and crucified at Jerusalem. They are entirely cor- 
rect in the outward features of his earthly career, but they 
have comparatively little conception of the spiritual significance 
of his wonderful life and his vicarious death. 

They think of the historical elements of his wonderful life 
as they would think of those of Buddha, Zoroaster or Moham- 
med. Their conception of his earthly life has no power over 
the development of their own lives, except as a mere character 
of history. They fail to see that his was a unique life, and 
that it was lived on earth by him that it might be lived in some 
measure over again on earth by us. They fail to see that he 
became the son of man that we might become the sons of God. 
They do not learn that he revealed the fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of man that we should sweetly experience the 
one and constantly illustrate the other. The historic Christ has 
no more power over the practical lives of some than the tradi- 
tional heroes of classic legend. Virtually for them there is no 
Christ of God. Practically for them there is no historic 
Christ. Until the historic Christ is translated into a personal 
Saviour and Master, controlling our acts, our words, and our 
thoughts by his matchless example, his unique personality and 
his spiritual purity, there is for us no historic Christ worthy 
the name. 

There are those who think of the Christ as a dreamy, senti- 



"What Think Ye of Christ?" 9 

mental, and poetic character. They are charmed by com- 
mendable characteristics of his remarkable life. They refer to 
him in terms of soothing speech and of dreamy affection. 
There is an element of poesy in all their conceptions of the 
divine-human Christ. They speak of him in language which 
the robust Chalmers called, in his lofty scorn, "nursery en- 
dearments." They are ready to adopt the language of the 
renowned French theologian, eminent Orientalist, and bril- 
liant rhetorician, Eenan, when he speaks of the Christ of God 
as the "sweet Galilean." Such epithets must be utterly un- 
welcome to Christ. If he be not more than man, he is less 
than man. If he be not worthy of our loftiest devotion, he is 
certainly worthy of our severest reprehension. In a word, if 
he be not God, he is not a true man. 

Carlyle described materialism as "a gospel of dirt ; ' y we 
might fittingly describe this sweet and silly sentimentalism as 
"a gospel of gush." Only as we bow down at Christ's feet 
and worship him as the divine-human Man can we give him 
the honor which he merits and demands. Then we can employ 
and sanctify the loftiest poetry in chanting his praise, the 
noblest art in limning his person, and the profoundest logic in 
urging his claims upon men as the divine-human Saviour. 
There are many who are willing to admit, and who earnestly 
affirm, that Jesus Christ is the ideal Man of the human race. 
They are ready to declare that it was a glorious thing that 
man was originally made like God, and that it was a still more 
condescending thing that God was made like man. The Christ 
was indeed the ideal man of the human race. He was the great 
exemplar, the perfect model, the sublime original to be imi- 
tated by all true men and women. In him, and in him only, 
the plant of humanity blossomed and bloomed into a perfect 
flower. 

But how can we account for the perfection of his humanity 
if we deny the reality of his divinity? We ought, as students 
of literature and life, to account for Jesus the Christ. We 
strive to account for Socrates and Plato, for David and Isaiah, 
for Paul and Luther, Washington and Gladstone, for Lincoln 
and McKinley. Are we not under the strongest possible obliga- 
tions to account for Jesus Christ? Men say that Jesus Christ 



10 The Question of the Centuries 

was good, but that he was not God. Out of their own mouths 
these men convict themselves of inconsistency in their locutions 
and illogicality in their reasonings. If Jesus Christ be not 
God, he is not good. He is either an unpardonable egotist, or 
a hopeless lunatic, or he is the. Christ of God, and God over 
all, blessed forever more. He claimed to be God, and if his 
claim be not true, how can he be good! The stream of his life 
flowed through the human race on a higher level, and rose to a 
vastly higher point, than any other stream known to human 
history or divine revelation. How shall we account for the 
height to which that stream rose? Water can never rise higher 
than its source. If that source were simply human, how can 
we account for the superhuman height which it reached? If 
we admit the account given in the Gospels of his virgin birth 
and divine origin, all his life is easily explicable. 

But if we deny his unique origin we cannot logically account 
for his unique life. A life begun as was never another life we 
might expect to see continue as no other life continued. A 
naturally skeptical man finds it easier to admit the account of 
Christ's remarkable birth than to attempt to explain his re- 
markable life if he deny the remarkable birth. The unicity of 
his birth we would naturally expect to eventuate in the unicity 
of his life. His life cannot be explained on any principle of 
heredity. We readily admit the royal element in his blood, 
although the fortunes of his family had fallen before his birth ; 
but no law of heredity will account for the physical attractive- 
ness, the mental superiority, and the moral purity of Jesus the 
Christ. Neither will environment account for his marvelous 
career and character. What was there in the peasant conditions 
of his family life to produce the uniqueness of his manhood? 
Neither will education account for the Christ. He never was 
in school, in the technical sense of that term, although he 
doubtless studied in the village synagogue; and yet he rose 
above all the limitations, traditions, and bigotries by which he 
was surrounded. It is doubtful if he ever sat at the feet of 
the greatest rabbis of the time. It is certain that he never 
studied at the feet of the philosophers of Greece and Borne, 
nor of the dreamy Orient. He never traveled, except possibly 
barely across the confines of Palestine, a country about the 



"What Think Ye of Christ?" 11 

size of the State of New Hampshire. How came he to eman- 
cipate himself from the sectarianism and sectionalism of his 
country and century? How came he to be the contemporary 
of all the ages? How came he to utter in the sermon on the 
Mount truths which socially and religiously the foremost think- 
ers of to-day can barely understand, and dare not fully apply 
to the solution of the problems of the hour? No mere human 
thinker has ever approached the Sermon on the Mount. But in 
pure spirituality of thought our Lord surpassed it in his last 
address to his disciples. This address bears ineffaceable marks 
of his supreme divinity and absolute deity. O, ye critics, I ask 
you as a problem of literature and life to account for Jesus the 
Christ. I ask no favors for him. It is you that need the 
favors, if you oppose the Christ. I demand for him simple 
justice. "What think ye of the Christ V 

Dr. Geikie, in his life of Christ, calls attention to the fact 
that the Jews confess great admiration for the character and 
words of Jesus; that the Mohammedan world gives him the 
high title of Messiah; that the myriad-minded Shakespeare 
paid him lowly reverence, and that men like Galileo, Kepler, 
Bacon, Newton and Milton set the name of Christ above every 
other name. He also reminds us that Jean Paul Eichter, whom 
his countrymen call "Der Einzige, " the unique, tells us that 
"the life of Christ concerns him who, being the holiest among 
the mighty, the mightiest among the holy, lifted with his 
pierced hands empires off their hinges, and turned the stream 
of centuries out of its channel, and still governs the ages. ' ' 
Spinoza, the great philosopher, son of Portuguese Jews, dis- 
ciple of Abenezra and Descartes, calls Christ the symbol of 
divine wisdom. Schelling and Hegel speak of him as the union 
of the divine and human. The immortal Goethe, the acknowl- 
edged prince of German poets, and one of the most superbly 
accomplished men of the eighteenth century, says: "I esteem 
the Gospels to be throughly genuine, for there shines forth 
from them the reflected splendor of a sublimity, proceeding 
from the person of Jesus Christ, of so divine a kind as only 
the divine could ever have manifested upon earth. " 

What thinkest thou of the Christ, O Jean Jacques Eousseau, 
with all the brilliancy of thy intellect, the singularity of thy 



12 The Question of the Centuries 

character, and the enthusiasm of thy writings? Give place to 
the witness Kousseau; hear his testimony. Kousseau speaks: 
"How petty are the books of the philosophers compared with 
the Gospels! Can it be that writings at once so sublime and 
so simple are the work of men? Can he whose life they tell be 
himself no more than a mere man? * * * Yes, if the death of 
Socrates be that of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are 
those of a God. " What thinkest thou of the Christ, burly, 
brusque, brave and heroic Thomas Carlyle, with all thy mar- 
velous reading, thy profound thinking and thy contempt of 
cant and love of truth? Carlyle steps forward and speaks: 
"Jesus of Nazareth, our divinest symbol! Higher has the 
human thought not yet reached.'' Let us summon Dr. Chan- 
ning, the cultured and eloquent preacher and writer, the fore- 
most man among American Unitarians in his day. What think- 
est thou, O Channing, of Jesus Christ ? He makes reply : ' ' The 
character of Jesus Christ is wholly inexplicable on human 
principles. ' ' 

What thinkest thou, O Herder, illustrious German thinker, 
broad scholar and exquisite genius, of Jesus the Christ? Su- 
perb is his reply: "Jesus Christ is in the noblest and most 
perfect sense the realized ideal of humanity. i} What thinkest 
thou of the Christ, O Napoleon, mighty son of Mars, striding 
through the world like a Colossus, darkening the brightness 
of noonday with the smoke, and lighting the darkness at mid- 
night with the fires of battle ? Hear this man of gigantic in- 
tellect, whatever may be said of his moral motives: "I think 
I understand somewhat of human nature, and I tell you all 
these (the heroes of antiquity) were men, and I am a man, 
but not one is like him; Jesus Christ was more than man. 
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded great 
empires; but upon what did the creations of our genius de- 
pend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded his empire upon 
love, and to this very day millions would die for him. ' ' Com- 
pared with such witnesses as these, the opponents of Jesus 
Christ of to-day are pigmies so contemptible in mentality and 
so questionable in morality as to be ruled out of every court of 
testimony where intellectual ability and moral worth have 
weight. 



"What Think Ye of Christ?" 13 

A true conception of Christ 's ideal humanity leads us to 
the assertion of his real divinity. We shall not, however, at 
this point spend time in splitting theological hairs. We may 
be able to pass the examination of a church council on our 
knowledge of divine sovereignity and human freedom, or on 
any of the " isms' ' of ancient or modern heterodoxy, and yet 
we may be spiritually dead. We may recite creeds by the yard, 
and yet be black in heart and vile in life. A dead orthodoxy 
may be worse than a live heterodoxy. Creeds may be as power- 
less over our lives as the multiplication table. We must know 
Jesus Christ as the vicarious sacrifice for sin, and as our per- 
sonal Lord and Saviour. The atonement is the heart of the- 
ology. The Cross is the center of the universe. It is the 
pivot around which all the great events of history revolve. 
The historian and the philosopher, as truly as the theologian, 
must build their studios on Calvary. 

Jesus Christ is the heart of the Bible. He is the Shiloh in 
Genesis; the I Am in Exodus; the Star and Scepter in Num- 
bers; the Rock in Deuteronomy; the Captain of the Lord's 
Host in Joshua, and the Redeemer in Job. He is David's 
Lord and Shepherd; in the Song of Songs he is the Beloved; 
in Isaiah he is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the 
Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. In Jeremiah he 
is the Lord our Righteousness. In Daniel he is the Messiah; 
in Zachariah he is the Branch; in Haggai he is the Desire of 
all Nations; in Malachi he is the Messenger, of the Covenant 
and the Sun of Righteousness, and in the book of Revelation he 
is the Alpha and Omega and also the Morning Star. 

I summon thee, O execrable Judas. Behold him flinging 
down the thirty pieces of silver before the chief priests and 
elders. Hear him speak in his agony of soul: "I have sinned 
in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." I summon thee, 

Pontius Pilate, with thy immortality of shame in the creeds 
of the ages. The Roman Procurator washes his hands. Strange 
sight! He speaks: "I am innocent of the blood of this just 
person." He speaks again: "I find no fault in this man." 

1 summon John, the heroic Baptist. Hear his testimony: "Be- 
hold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. ' ' 
O loving and divine John, the Evangelist, what thinkest thou 



14 The Question of the Centuries 

of the Christ? "He is the Vine, the Way, the Truth, the 
Life, the Light, and the Word, and the Word was God. " I 
summon thee, O matchless Paul. What is thy testimony ? ' ' He 
is the image of the invisible God. * * * The blessed and only 
Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." I summon 
thee, apostle Peter, once confessor, then denier, but afterward 
penitent witness and heroic martyr. What is thy testimony? 
i ' He is the Christ, the son of the living God. ' ' I summon 
thee, O once doubting but always brave Thomas. Hear the 
testimony of this witness as he falls at the Master's feet and 
exclaims, "My Lord and my God. " 

I summon thee, O John Bunyan, immortal tinker; thy glori- 
ous pilgrim marching through the ages, telling the story of 
redeeming love, is thy testimony to the character of thy Lord. 
I summon thee, O Charles H. Spurgeon, and the testimony of 
all thy volumes, of thy glorious life and of thy peerless minis- 
try is that "Jesus Christ is the chief est among ten thousand 
and the one altogether lovely. " I summon thee, O De Wette, 
great biblical critic of Germany. "This only I know, that 
there is salvation in no other name than in the name of Jesus 
Christ, the crucified. ' ' I summon thee, O scholarly, cultured 
Macintosh; the attendants are watching thy last moments, 
they bend over thee to catch thy last whispers, "Jesus, love! — 
Jesus, love! — The same thing." I might summon ten thou- 
sand more, who from the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, and from 
a thousand racks and stakes went up to glory and to God, and 
their testimony would be, ' i None but Jesus, none but Jesus. ' J 
1 summon thee, Toplady, and hear thee sing, "Bock of ages, 
cleft for me.'' 

I summon thee, Charles Wesley, and with thee sing myself, 
"Thou, O Christ, art all I want." I summon thee, O Joseph 
Parker, after thy immortal ministry in London, and hear thee 
say, as that ministry nears its triumphant close: "I have 
companied with him of Nazareth and Calvary, in all holiness 
and tenderest love, love passing the love of woman, ardent 
like an altar flame. " I summon thyself, O thou Christ of 
God, thou holiest of the holy, thou who art God of very God. 
What sayest thou of thyself ? ' ' Before Abraham was I am. ' ' 



"What Think Ye of Christ?" 15 

"I and my Father are one. M "He that hath seen me, hath 
seen the Father. ,? 

O men and women in this audience, I ask you all in his own 
glorious Name and in his own solemn words, "What think ye 
of the Christ? I beseech you in the name of Him before 
whose bar we must all stand, that each one of you now fall at 
Jesus' feet, and utter with Thomas, out of penitent and be- 
lieving hearts, this confession of faith and love, "My Lord 
and my God." 



The Pre-eminence of Christ 

TEXT: COLOSSIANS i:**i8, "that in all things he (Christ) might have the 
pre-eminence." 

THE APOSTLE PAUL loved the Messiah. He never 
meant, even as Saul of Tarsus, to be disloyal or un- 
loving toward the Messiah of Israel. He was a Hebrew 
of the Hebrews; his deepest thought, as patriot and religionist, 
centered in the Messiah as the hope of Israel. He opposed 
Jesus of Nazareth because he did not recognize Jesus of 
Nazareth as the Messiah of God. On the Damascus highway, 
when the light brighter than the Syrian sun at noonday, shone 
upon him and he fell to the earth, he learned by a marvelous 
experience that the Nazarene was the Messiah. He then gave 
Jesus the loyalty and love of his great brain and his noble 
heart. From that moment Jesus Christ became the inspiration 
of his loftiest attainments, the theme of his sublimest dis- 
courses, and the goal of his divinest ambitions. To honor 
Christ was from that moment the dominant motive of his life. 
He gave Christ the pre-eminence in all his joys and sorrows, 
and in all his achievements and endeavors. Christ was hi3 
inspiration in life, his hope in death, and the chief attraction 
of heaven in his desire and expectation. 

We also ought to give Christ the pre-eminence in all the 
purposes of our earthly lives, and in all our hopes for eternal 
felicity. Let us study together for a little time some of the 
spheres of thought, activity, and experience in which we are 
to give Christ the pre-eminence; and also some of those in 
which Christ now has the pre-eminence. 

Christ has the pre-eminence in the Bible record of Creation. 
The first verse in the Bible, as we all know, is: "In the begin- 
ning God created the heavens and the earth. " These are 
majestic words; nothing more sublime is found in any litera- 
ture. The Bible nowhere attempts to prove the existence of 



The Pre-eminence of Christ 17 

God; the Bible as a revelation from God necessarily implies 
his existence. This verse virtually denies atheism, because it 
assumes theism; it denies materialism, because it asserts crea- 
tion; it rejects pantheism, because it declares the personality 
of God. Were it not that we have become so familiar with this 
verse, its reading would invariably evoke our admiration and 
secure our reverence. 

Alongside of this verse we must put another which is some- 
what similar in form, is equally majestic in significance, and 
is profounder in its theistic philosophy and mystery. This 
verse is the first one in the gospel by the evangelist John: "In 
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. " This verse sets forth the eternal pre- 
existence of Jesus Christ, his personal co-existence with the 
Father, and his divine essence as God. It is the formulation 
of the proposition to prove which the gospel by this evangelist 
was written; and in the writer 's opinion, as he informs us 
near the close of the gospel, he has proved the Messiahship and 
Godhead of Jesus Christ as the eternal Word. The writer goes 
back, as did Moses, to the origin of all things, and there he 
finds God as Creator. By the side of this wonderful verse we 
ought also to put the third and fourth verses of this same 
chapter: "All things were made through him; and without him 
was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life ; 
and the life was the light of men. " Here the work of crea- 
tion is distinctly ascribed to the divine Word, who is Jesus 
Christ. Thus creative omnipotence is ascribed to Jesus Christ; 
we thus see he is the divine Personality who is spoken of in 
Genesis as the Creator. 

By the side of both these passages, we ought to place the 
remarkable words in Colossians 1: 16, 17: "For in him were 
all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things 
visible and invisible * * * all things have been created through 
him and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all 
things consist. ' ' When we turn to Hebrews 1 : 2, we read that 
the Son is "appointed heir of all things, through whom also 
he made the worlds. ' ? We thus see that Jesus Christ is the 
Creator of this physical universe. He is our Prophet, our 
Priest, our King, our Creator, our Preserver and our Ee- 



18 The Question of the Centuries 

deemer. Preservation is continuous creation; and redemption, 
is the loftiest function of the Almighty; it is indeed the re- 
creation of the race. Not God the Father, not God the Spirit, 
but God the Son is the glorious Personality of the blessed 
Trinity through whom creative and preservative power mani- 
fests itself in this world. 

This world was once the thought of God, as the engine was 
once the thought of its inventor. This world is still the 
thought of God. It is now God 's thought materialized, in- 
carnated, translated. The mountains are God's majestic 
thoughts. The stars are God's brilliant thoughts. The flow- 
ers are God's beautiful thoughts. Creation speaks to us of 
his wisdom, his power, and his love. We ought to study crea- 
tion with this thought in mind, as our dominant motive and 
our lofty inspiration. Do I study astronomy? Then I am 
reading God's thoughts after him. Every true student may 
say with the great astronomer Kepler, "O Almighty God, I 
think thy thoughts after Thee." Then I may see Jesus Christ 
as the bright and morning Star. Do I study geology? Then 
I shall see Christ as the Kock of Ages. Do I study botany? 
Then I shall see Christ as the Kose of Sharon and the Lily of 
the valley. In studying chemistry I may learn that every law 
of attraction and repulsion is a manifestation of the will of 
God. In mathematics every sine and co-sine is a revelation of 
the thoughts of God. All the world, to the devout student, is 
voiceful with God's name, and resplendent with God's glory. 

The modern conception of the uniformity and the universal- 
ity of law, does not militate against this truth. Some men 
speak of law as if it somehow had a personality and potency 
of its own; they incorrectly define law, if they attempt to give 
it any definition. What is law in this connection? May I 
attempt a definition? Law is the name which we give to the 
manner in which we have observed some force to act. If that 
force be material, we have a physical law; if it be mental, we 
have an intellectual law; if it be moral, we have a spiritual 
law. Law is not a force ; law is a form. Law is not a power ; 
law is a process. Law is not a motor; law is a motion. Law 
is not an agent; law is an agency. Back of the motion is the 
motor; there stands God. Back of the process is the power; 



The Pre-eminence of Christ 19 

there stands God. Back of the form is the force; there stands 
God. Back of the agency is the agent; there stands God. 

Evolution does not eliminate God from the universe. Per- 
haps we are not ready to affirm that the doctrine of evolution 
has been indisputably established, but for all practical pur- 
poses it is established. It certainly is sufficiently established 
to be a working hypothesis. Evolution only puts God farther 
back in the line of development. I believe that evolution the 
more exalts God; it gives him additional honor and glory. 
There may be an agnostic and even an atheistic evolution; but 
there may be an evolution which is truly theistic and Chris- 
tian. This evolution honors God with knowledge and power to 
a remarkable degree. Evolution is simply God's method of 
accomplishing determined results. Evolution implies an in- 
volver; nothing can be evolved which was not first involved. 
Evolution thus necessitates involution. Law suggests a law- 
giver; order implies an ordainer. The progress of physical 
science is making it vastly easier for us to believe in God than 
ever before. A generation ago religious men were fearful 
regarding the progress of scientific knowledge. Their fears 
have not been justified by the results. The long distance tele- 
phone and the wireless telegraph make it easier than ever be- 
fore in the history of the human race to believe in the unseen 
God and in invisible forces. I can stand in New York and 
talk through a long distance telephone to my brother man in 
Chicago, in round numbers one thousand miles away, without 
the violation of natural law, but in perfect harmony therewith. 
Who dare say that I cannot kneel in my home and talk to my 
Father who is in heaven? Heaven is nearer to me than 
Chicago. Perhaps this heavenly communication is in as perfect 
harmony with natural law as when I talk to my brother man 
in Chicago. A generation ago it would have been affirmed 
that it was contrary to all natural law to claim that we could 
talk to a man a thousand miles away. It was contrary to the 
natural laws that were then known, but we did not then know 
all natural laws; and he would be a reckless man who would 
affirm that we know all natural laws to-olay. God is speaking 
to us in his world. And as we listen to hear our Father's 
voice, we may see our Father's face in the person of Jesus 



20 The Question of the Centuries 

Christ, for he has said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father. ' • 

We are to give Christ the pre-eminence, also, in Revelation. 
We have made unwarranted distinctions between God's world 
and God 's word. I distinctly remember when certain teachers 
thought that they gave additional honor to the word by taking 
somewhat from the honor of the world. That was a great mis- 
take. God's world and God's word are only different parts of 
God's wonderful book of revelation. There is no contradic- 
tion between natural and revealed religion. Natural religion 
is revealed religion, so far as it goes; true science is revela- 
tion, so far as it goes. But neither goes far enough, and so 
both are supplemented by God's fuller, humaner, and diviner 
revelation contained in the blessed book which we call the 
Bible. 

It seems to me that the nineteenth psalm sets forth most 
beautifully the true relation which ought to exist between 
God 's world and God 's word. In the first six verses of that 
psalm we have natural religion: "The heavens declare the 
glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day 
unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowl- 
edge. ' ' We have here one of the finest personifications I know 
of in any writer. One day is represented as calling to the 
next day, and the next takes up the cry and passes it on, thus 
day unto day in ceaseless procession, shows God's wondrous 
revelation of himself. In the seventh verse of this psalm you 
enter into a new atmosphere. You feel now that you are 
breathing the air more distinctively of heaven, and that your 
feet are standing upon the solid rock, for you read, "The law 
of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." Down to the end 
of the thirteenth verse you have revealed religion and the effect 
which it ought to produce on action and character. Then in 
the last verse you have experimental religion: "Let the words 
of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in 
thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. ' ' Observe 
what progress you have in this psalm. You have first, crea- 
tion; second, revelation; third, regeneration; natural religion, 
revealed religion, experimental religion. As I understand it 
this psalm is in this respect an epitome of the whole Bible. 



The Pre-eminence of Christ 21 

Strictly speaking, the Bible is not a book; it is a library. It 
is the most wonderful library in existence. It took 1600 years 
to make it. It took God and probably forty different writers 
to make it. Some of these writers were princes, some were 
peasants; some were lovers of war, some preservers of peace. 
Parts of it were written in prison; parts in palaces; parts by 
men of the highest culture ; parts by men of ordinary intellect. 
And yet the book is a unit. The unity of the whole Bible 
centers about Jesus Christ. From the first majestic words of 
Genesis to the last love-notes of Eevelation, this Book reveals 
his glory and chants his praise. 

You remember that when Handel became discouraged by his 
attempts to give opera in London in a comparatively unknown 
tongue, he left London and went to Dublin. Just before leav- 
ing London, some friend gave him a passage of scripture on 
which to write an oratorio. In Dublin he wrote the oratorio 
which was first called ' ' The Sacred Oratorio, J ' and which was 
produced first in Dublin. Later it was given in London. It 
gave him immediate fame in both cities; now it is known as 
the "Oratorio of The Messiah," and it has carried in sacred 
song the name of Handel around the globe. He linked his 
name, as a musician, with the immortal name of Christ. The 
operas of the hour are for the hour. The music that has in it 
the element of enduringness, is religious music. The man 
whose name is inseparably linked with the name of Christ, will 
catch somewhat of the glory of Christ, and will live in the 
future, crowned in his measure with immortal youth, as is 
Jesus Christ. I never lose an opportunity to hear that oratorio. 
There are parts of it so sweet and so beautiful that I some- 
times think that if heaven has anything better in the way of 
song, I cannot endure the bliss, except I be endued with new 
powers of enjoyment. I have listened to the pastoral symphony 
in that oratorio until the plain of Bethlehem came visibly be- 
fore my eyes, and the song of the angels that rolled over that 
plain the night the Christ was born, echoed through my soul. 
I have listened to the contralto solo, "He was despised and 
rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, ' ' 
until it seemed as if my own heart would break with sympa- 
thetic sorrow. I have listened to the "Hallelujah Chorus" 



22 The Question of the Centuries 

until I could appreciate what Handel said of its composition, 
that he seemed to see the gates of heaven opened, and the 
great God standing before him. We know that Handel wrote 
parts of that music on his knees, and that he mingled his tears 
with his ink. But, men and women, the real, the true, the most 
glorious oratorio of "The Messiah" I have here in my hand 
as I hold this Bible aloft to your gaze. The score and the 
text were written by God through holy men of old. This 
divine-human book is the true "Oratorio of the Messiah." 
This Bible is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ his Son, 
and our divine Eedeemer. The genuine unity of which I spoke, 
pervades the book. In every great musical composition, there 
is a diapason, a unitive, a pervasive, a dominant, a concordant 
note. If I were skillful as a musician I could stand by Niagara 
Falls and write the score of the majestic music of this marvel- 
ous cataract. If I were a sufficiently competent musician I 
could stand by a little brook and write the score of its music; 
both would have their diapason, their pervasive and unitive 
note. Jesus Christ is the diapason of the oratorio of the Bible. 
His name is the harmonious note in this glorious song of the 
ages. The unity of the Bible is not external but internal; it is 
not mechanical but essential; it is not material but spiritual; 
and throughout all the Bible the name of Christ echoes, and 
the glory of Christ shines. Through the corridors of Bible 
revelation the footfalls of Christ reverberate, and the music of 
his name resounds. 

In England, as in America, audiences uniformly rise when 
choirs begin to sing the Hallelujah Chorus in the Oratorio of 
the Messiah. In Albert Hall, London, a great audience was 
assembled, and Victoria, the Great and the Good, was present 
in the royal box. The audience rose, but the noble queen re- 
mained seated. Soon every eye was directed to the royal box 
in which sat the queen. On rolled the magnificent chorus; but 
the queen remained seated. Higher still rose the lofty song; 
onward swept the glorious music. With curious glances, the 
audience turned to the royal box in which the queen remained 
seated. Loftier still rose the celestial notes. Now the song 
reached the part of the chorus where Christ is praised as 
* ' King of kings and Lords of lords. ' ' The swelling song thus 



The Pre-eminence of Christ 23 

puts the crown of universal dominion on his divine -human 
brow. Then the noble queen arose and stood with bowed head, 
as if she would cast the crown of the world 's mightiest empire 
at the pierced feet of her divine Lord. Creation and revela- 
tion, art and science, song and story, learning and genius, and 
all earthly rulers reach their noblest heights when they bend 
in lowliest reverence at the feet of Jesus Christ, and crown 
him "King of kings and Lord of lords." 

We are to give Christ the pre-eminence also in our study of 
History. What is history? It is not easy to give a satisfac- 
tory definition. Perhaps we may say that history is a syste- 
matic narrative of events in which man has participated. We 
sometimes say that Herodotus was the "father of history." 
Not so; Moses is the father of history. Moses was an ancient' 
and authoritative historian centuries before Herodotus was 
born. Thucydides has given us valuable illustrations of a 
scientific tendency in the study of history. Polybius was an 
accurate student of Thucydides. Caesar was not a scientific 
historian but a chronicler. Xenophon was simply an annalist; 
even Livy and Tacitus were not quite scientific historians. 
Eusebius was the first ecclesiastical historian worthy the name. 
But we do not have a true conception of history until about 
the time of the Reformation. Then we began to see, and later 
more fully, that there is a science and a philosophy of history; 
and that the true historian does not simply state facts, but 
also shows the relation between causes and results. In any 
true conception of history it is seen that Jesus Christ is the 
unifier of the history of this world. Neither Gibbon, Hume, 
Macaulay, Green or McMaster, I venture to affirm, nor any 
other man can write a scientific history of the world and leave 
out Jesus Christ. You might as well try to write a treatise on 
astronomy and leave out the sun. Jesus Christ is the sun of 
the moral universe. All the events of history before his com- 
ing converged toward him; all events since have diverged from 
him. Christ's cross is the pivotal point in the history of the 
race. On this cross was written his title in Hebrew, the lan- 
guage of religion; in Greek, the language of art; in Latin, the 
language of law and military power. The cross stood at the 
confluence of the three streams of ancient civilization. Re- 



24 The Question of the Centuries 

ligion came and laid its crown at Jesus Christ 's feet ; art came 
and paid its tribute at the cross; and law came and cast its 
honors before the Christ. They all said, "We will have Jesus 
for our King. ' ' Christ assuredly is the center of the civiliza- 
tion of the race. 

Somehow we have largely lost this conception of the position 
of Christ. We have somehow relegated Jesus to distant ages 
and remote countries. We are willing to believe that God was 
in the world in the days of Moses and David, of Solomon and 
Isaiah, and of Hosea and Malachi; perhaps also in the days 
of the apostles, and some would admit that God was actively 
present in the days of Wesley and Whitefield. But somehow 
many of us have come to the conclusion that God has retired 
from the world. Do not believe it. God is not dead; God is 
not dethroned. The pierced palm of Jesus Christ is on the 
helm of this universe. God was never more really in the world 
than he is to-day. Jesus Christ was never more truly the 
center of the events of history than he is now. I would not 
pun on a word in a sacred connection; but I say that history 
is "His story. " The story of Christ is the history of man. 
I believe that God is going before America as truly to-day as 
he went before Israel of old, with pillar of cloud by day and 
pillar of fire by night. He is leading America onward and up- 
ward, until to-day our America sits crowned as queen in the 
congress of nations. Men say God was with Washington and 
God was with Lincoln. Why should we not say God is with 
our heroic leaders to-day? I speak not as a partisan, but as 
an enthusiastic, although only an adopted, American citizen. 
Jesus Christ is guiding this whole world into fuller light, into 
larger life, and into diviner work than ever before in the his- 
tory of America or in the history of humanity. 

Jesus Christ is pre-eminent in Redemption. I limit the 
word redemption, for the moment, to our personal Christian 
experience. I shall not make light of the Church. God forbid. 
I am too much of a churchman for that. The Church is the 
bride of Christ. He came from heaven to woo and win her. I 
shall not make light of church ordinances. God forbid. They 
have their place and purpose. I shall not make light of church 
creeds. They have a place and purpose, although not so great 



The Pre-eminence of Christ 25 

as many believe, but still a place. We repeat in our own 
church service the so-called Apostles ' Creed. I am glad there 
has been eliminated from the form we use the clause about 
the descent into hades. It ought never to have been intro- 
duced, and as speedily as possible it ought to be struck out. 
It was not in for about seven hundred years, and no man living 
can tell how it ever got into this creed. Its introduction is 
one of the mysteries and misfortunes of ecclesiastical history. 
I would not make light of the Mcene Creed, although it is too 
abstruse and difficult for ordinary use, and its preparation was 
the result of shameful quarrels on the part of members of the 
council who acted at times more like ward politicians than like 
Christian teachers. I am glad I am not obliged to repeat the 
Athanasian Creed. There are parts of it that doom so many 
men to eternal perdition that on my lips, at least, those words 
would be blasphemy. In Christian experience it is Christ first, 
Christ last, Christ always. We do not read, "Come unto bap- 
tism, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. ' ' We do not read, 
"Come unto the communion for peace and salvation. '* But 
Christ said, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest. " 

A little while ago I was called to visit a dying man. He did 
not belong to my parish, in any strict sense in which that term 
may be used; but my parish includes everybody to whom I can 
be helpful in the providence of God. I saw, immediately on 
entering the room, that he was a very sick man; and the mo- 
ment his family spoke, I saw I was in a Scotch home. Prob- 
ably I was called because of my name and parentage. The wife 
went near him and said, "John, the minister is come. Do ye 
ken him?" But his eyes were lightless and his face express- 
ionless. His daughter then went to him and said, "Faither, do 
ye ken me ? I 'm yer ain wee dochter Jeanie. ' ' But there was 
no response. The wife was now filled with peculiar sadness, 
and going to him again she said, "John, John, do ye ken me. 
John, speak to me, I'm your ain wifey. " Still there was no 
response. Then I went close to him, and in a calm, clear 
voice, adopting their own method of speech, I said: "John, do 
ye ken Jesus?" Instantly his face and eyes were illumined 
with almost heavenly light, and with strength which seemed 
to be divinely given, he said, "O, I ken him weel. He's my 



26 The Question of the Centuries 

ain Saviour. ' ' I knelt by his side, took his hand in mine, and 
prayed. For a time I felt the grasp of his hand in response 
to my prayers; then his hand was still, and when I ceased 
praying I looked into his face and he was gone. He had gone 
to see "his ain Saviour' ' face to face. That was no time to 
talk about creeds; that was no time to talk about churches. 
That was the time to talk about Christ. The older I grow, the 
shorter and simpler my creed becomes. Not more creed but 
more Christ, the Church needs and the world needs. A Christ- 
less pulpit is a powerless pulpit. Christless pews are charmless 
pews. Let us give Christ the pre-eminence in our studies, in 
our pleasures, in our homes, and in our business. If a man 
can not take Christ into his business, he must have a very 
bad business, or he must have a very poor religion; probably 
he has both. 

Christ shall have the pre-eminence in heaven. Without 
Christ heaven itself would be charmless. You have children 
in heaven; you have parents in heaven. But past the dearest 
of children, past the best beloved of mothers you will hasten to 
cast your joyous crown at his pierced feet. His name will be 
the sweetest note in your most triumphant song. His presence 
will give heaven its chief attraction. There you shall see him 
face to face; there you shall behold him as "King of kings, 
and Lord of lords. ' ' Your glad and grateful song will re- 
sound through heaven's lofty dome: "Blessing, and glory, and 
wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, 
be unto our God forever and ever." Higher still will rise the 
other song which even angels and archangels cannot sing, but 
which redeemed sinners shall ever chant : ' ( Unto him that loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath 
made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be 
glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." 



The Glorious Metamorphosis 

TEXT: II COR. 3:18, "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory 

of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, 

even as by the spirit of the Lord." 

THE APOSTLE PAUL 'S masterful ministry as an apostle 
of Christianity was due in no small degree to the thor- 
oughness of his discipleship in Judaism. The noble 
apostle always meant to be loyal to the Messiah. His opposi- 
tion to Jesus of Nazareth was due to the fact that he did not 
know him to be the Christ of God. When on Damascus high- 
way he was stricken down, light regarding the character of 
Christ illumined his soul. He then realized that Jesus of 
Nazareth was the Messiah of God, and he cried out, "Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do?" He then understood the true 
relation between Judaism and Christianity ; he then saw that 
Judaism was the root and the trunk of the tree of which Chris- 
tianity is the flower and the fruit; he then saw that Judaism 
was the gray dawn of the morning and that Christianity is the 
full splendor of the noonday sun. Ever after, he loved to com- 
pare the two dispensations that he might see the superior glory 
of Christianity. 

In the connection in which the text stands we are carried 
back to the time when Israel was gathered on the plain at the 
foot of Mount Sinai. Moses had gone to hold converse with 
God. The days slowly pass. Moses now returns, and the lin- 
gering traces of the glory of the Lord are still seen in his 
shining face. His appearance inspired terror rather than joy; 
and Moses vailed his face for the sake of the people. The 
apostle Paul finds deep significance in this act on the part of 
Moses. The vailing was not merely because of the dazzling 
splendor which made it difficult to behold him. The apostle 
sees that the vailed face was symbolic of important spiritual 
truths; he sees in that act a picture of the old dispensation. 



28 The Question of the Centuries 

It was only a partial revelation; it expressed itself through a 
vail, revealing itself in typical rites and in obscure prophecies. 
But Christianity comes to us with the light on its face and with 
the vail entirely removed. Doubtless, there was divine wisdom 
in the partial concealment of spiritual truths in the old dis- 
pensation. The ultimate design of these Mosaic institutions 
the people could not in the early day fully understand. For a 
time the brightness was mercifully concealed; the fulness of 
time had not yet come. God as a wise teacher taught the peo- 
ple as they were able to understand. They were slow pupils. 
The end shadowed forth by these types was Jesus Christ. Over 
the glory of Christ the vail had for a time to be thrown as over 
the face of Moses. 

The apostle sees that to the Jews, Christ 's glory is 3till pre- 
figured, is still vailed. Their self-imposed unbelief vailed their 
hearts. Christ's life and character they would see to be the 
reconciliation of all apparently contradictory prophecies, did 
they but take the vail from their faces. Their minds were 
obscured by prejudice and unbelief. If with unclouded face 
they could look upon Christ they would see him as a mighty 
prince, a glorious conqueror, and a peerless king; but yet as 
the child of the manger, the man of sorrows, and the sacrifice 
on the Cross. They would see that he fulfilled even the appar- 
ently contradictory prophecies of the Old Testament. All these 
prophecies become sublime and divine harmonies in Jesus of 
Nazareth. When the heart turns to him the vail is taken away. 
Light streams from his cross along the whole line of Old 
Testament history. The cross is the key to God's thought in 
prophecy and history, in type and shadow, in time and eter- 
nity. The apostle shows us here that the spirit of the Lord is 
the spirit of love, liberty, and light. Like the fresh breeze of 
the morning, it dispels the mists of doubt, difficulty, and sin. 
It leaves the atmosphere of human thought and feeling clear 
and crisp as a winter morning. Judaism and Christianity are 
then seen to be parts of one whole. Judaism disappears in the 
brighter light of Christianity, as the stars of the morning are 
obscured by the splendor of the risen sun. 

I. We see here, in the first place, who are the subjects of 
this glorious metamorphosis ; they are those who with open face 



The Glorious Metamorphosis 29 

behold in a glass the glory of the Lord. It is the duty and 
privilege of all Christians to behold that glory. Christians can 
now look on the glory of Christ with unvaried face. That 
glory shines resplendently in the Gospels. In the life and his- 
tory of Christ, the beauty of the Lord our God is unvailed. 
Christ is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express 
image of his person. Walking with Jesus in the Gospel story, 
he causes our hearts to burn within us, and then he reveals 
himself to our wondering eyes as he did to the two disciples 
on the way to Emmaus. There is some difference of opinion 
regarding the exact meaning of the phrase, "beholding as in a 
glass." MacKnight renders it, "we all reflecting as mirrors 
the glory of the Lord." Doddridge gives it, "beholding as by 
a glass ; ' ' and Locke, ' ' with open countenance as mirrors, re- 
flecting the glory of the Lord. ' ' The Greek word used in this 
connection is used nowhere else in the New Testament, hence 
the variety of opinions in rendering it. We know that the 
mirrors of the ancients were of burnished metal, and they often 
threw their own splendor on the face of the person who looked 
upon them. The thought here is that the Gospel, like burnished 
metal, receives and reflects the glory of the Lord. Christians 
looking into the -Gospel behold as in a mirror the glory of 
Christ, and this glory which shone upon the face of Paul 
shines also upon their own faces. 

There is no vail on this glory, nothing whatever to diminish 
its brilliancy, or to lessen its beauty as it is reflected in the 
faces of the beholders. The perfections of God thus shine out 
of the Gospel, and are then thrown upon the faces of true be- 
lievers, transforming them to some degree into the divine 
image. This is an unspeakably sweet and precious thought; 
it sets forth the truth that in the face of Christians may be 
seen a reflection of the infinite Glory of God. In the Lord in- 
carnate the majesty and holiness of God were revealed; in 
Jesus of Nazareth, God's attributes of mercy, justice, and 
goodness are displayed. He that hath seen the Son hath seen 
the Father. 

If we put ourselves before this mirror our own faces shall 
not be long in darkness. For a time, indeed, Christ may travel 



30 The Question of the Centuries 

with us incognito along life's highway; but soon he will make 
himself known to us, and then our hearts shall burn within us. 
The light of Christ in the Gospel is bright, but not dazzling; 
it is warm, but not scorching. The incarnation of Christ en- 
ables us to look without blindness and even without weariness 
upon his person. We could not gaze upon the unclouded glories 
of the Son of God. He dwelt in light to which no man could 
approach; in his presence even the angels veiled their faces. 
His incarnation for a time drew a cloud across the face of 
the sun; he laid aside a portion of his glory in consenting to 
become the child of the manger. This temporary concealment 
of his glory was a part of his voluntary humiliation. His hu- 
man body was, so to speak, a mirror in which we might gaze 
upon all his divine splendor which human eyes may be per- 
mitted to see. In the Palazzo Rospigliosi in Rome, amid many 
remarkable frescoes and other treasures of art, there is in the 
principal hall the famous ceiling painting by Guido Reni — 
Aurora strewing flowers before the chariot of the god of the 
sun. The coloring is worthy of special notice both because of 
its brilliancy and harmony. The strongest light is thrown upon 
the figure of Apollo who appears with hair and body of golden 
hue. The nymphs nearest to him are of corresponding tint in 
their yellowish robes, while the dun-colored horses harmonize 
with the clouds in the background. All critics agree that this 
is the artist's finest work of its kind. But the neck and eyes 
of the beholder grow utterly weary in the effort to study this 
picture on the ceiling. A happy thought suggested itself to 
those in charge ; opposite the entrance they have placed a 
mirror in which the painting appears in all its details of fig- 
ure, color, and movement. In this mirror, as one sits by it and 
looks down upon it, the painting may be studied with care and 
without weariness. Such a mirror was the humanity of Jesus 
Christ. In marvelous condescension he became a babe honor- 
ing the cradle, a boy glorifying boyhood, and a man exalting 
manhood to the divine standard; and now we may gaze with 
mingled love and admiration upon the lineaments of divinity 
softened as they are seen in the mirror of humanity. Oh, come 
into that mellowed light to-day! Sit with Mary at the feet of 
Jesus, and you shall learn of him. Make him the object of 



The Glorious Metamorphosis 31 

your prolonged and loving contemplation; and the glory of the 
King in his beaut}' shall assuredly shine in your face. 

II. We now notice, in the second place, the metamorphosis 
itself. We see clearly from this text the great change which 
results in the case of those who constantly, trustfully, and lov- 
ingly gaze on Christ ; for we are told that we ' ' are changed 
into the same image. " Just as the reflection from the bur- 
nished metal was cast on the face of all who beheld, so the 
glory of the Lord as first seen in the Gospel is thrown upon 
our faces, if we contemplate that glory as there revealed. This 
is a figure of great beauty and inspiration. If we place our- 
selves within the light of the Gospel, if we steadily contem- 
plate this glory, we ourselves become changed into the likeness 
of that glory and become conformed to the character of Christ 
himself. We know that it is a law of our being that we be- 
come assimilated to the persons with whom we constantly asso- 
ciate, whom we daily contemplate, and greatly admire. In- 
sensibly our thoughts, words, and acts become like theirs; un- 
consciously their opinions become ours, their manners ours, and 
their conversation, even to its tones, becomes ours. Books, pic- 
tures, sculptures exercise similar influences upon our lives. 
This law should make us extremely careful concerning the per- 
sons with whom we associate, and the mental and moral atmos- 
phere which we breathe. By living a worldly life we may 
throw a shadow over the brightness of our piety; but by living 
with Christ we gain his image, we have his thoughts, we live 
over again his life. There may thus be a progressive con- 
formity to the likeness of Christ during our earthly life. This 
is the wonderful, the glorious, the divine metamorphosis of 
which the apostle here speaks. As we gaze steadily upon Christ 
our own characters reproduce his image. Love makes us like 
those we love. Eeverence for Christ transforms our nature into 
the divine likeness. It is not, however, the occasional look 
upon Jesus, but the steady gaze of love and trust that by silent 
sympathy reproduces in us something of his divine beauty. 

The thought of metamorphosis is in harmony with the idea 
of many heathen poets and philosophers. They imagined a 
metamorphosis of men into gods, and of gods into men, and of 
men even into animals. The ancient heathen poets sung in 



32 The Question of the Centuries 

their loftiest strains of such transformations. The story of 
Daphne, who when wooed and pursued by Apollo, prayed to her 
mother, the earth, which opened and received her, and she soon 
again appeared changed into a laurel tree sacred to Apollo and 
to all poets and heroes, is in harmony with this conception. So 
is the fable of Juno, the queen of heaven when changed into 
a bear, and of Diana transforming Actason into a stag to be 
hunted by his own hounds; and many other similar fables are 
in harmony with the same conception. In heathen temples in 
China are still seen plaster representations of the transmigra- 
tion of souls. Such human fancies are vague presentiments of 
higher truths. 

Man's creation itself suggests a recreation or transforma- 
tion. He stands on creation's pedestal as made in the divine 
image. The actual facts of daily experience prove the reality 
of this metamorphosis. Men are by the alchemy of God's 
grace literally transformed in our day. They are not simply 
translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of 
God's dear Son, but they are literally transformed in charac- 
ter. Along the whole line of the Christian church we see evi- 
dences of the transforming power of God's grace in rescuing 
great sinners and in making them great saints. All about us 
are living witnesses of God 's transforming power manifested in 
this way. The face of Moses shone with but a momentary 
gleam, with only a transient brightness; but we may have a 
perpetual light. The luster on his face was but skin deep; 
but our light is heart deep. The spirit of God within us has a 
continuous, a universal, a permanent and a gloriously trans- 
forming power. Miracles, more wonderful than any performed 
by Christ during his earthly life, are performed by him to- 
day in the moral lives of men. There are about us now, 
men whose faces shine like that of Moses, because they 
are living with Christ and thus gaining his image. There are 
men and women now who dwell on the mount of transfiguration, 
and whose faces glow with heavenly splendors. It is said that 
one grain of iodine will give color to seven thousand times its 
own weight of water. It is certain that the grace of God 
received into the heart will give shape, color, power and glory 
to the lives of all who receive the heavenly gift. Oh, blessed 



The Glorious Metamorphosis 33 

light and heat which come to us from contemplating Christ! 
It is the heat which melts the cold heart; and it is light which 
illumines the face with the glory of the Lord. 

III. The text also teaches us, in the last place, that this 
metamorphosis is progressive— we "are changed into the same 
image, from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord. ' ' 
We make progress from one degree of glory to another. The 
more steadily we gaze on the glory of the Lord the more do we 
reflect its brightness and beauty; the more profoundly we con- 
template the truths of our holy religion, the more completely do 
we represent these truths before our fellowmen. Christians 
may live in increasing light and in growing love. They go 
"from strength to strength," they advance from one degree 
of holiness to another; they go from one experience of blessing 
to a higher until they enjoy the beatific vision of God in his 
immediate presence. Now they see the king in his beauty in 
the land that is afar off; but one day they shall be in that 
land, and shall cast their crowns at the king's feet; one day 
they shall see Jesus as he is, and be made entirely like him. 

This metamorphosis is carried forward by the Spirit of the 
Lord. His influence changes the heart and remodels the life. 
He is the author and upholder of the spiritual life. He "takes 
of the things of Christ and shews them unto us." Only as we 
are led by the Spirit of God can we know that we are the chil- 
dren of God. We must submit fully to his leadership and thus 
shall we partake completely of the character of the sons of 
God. We must associate on the most intimate terms with 
Jesus Christ if the reflection of his face is to be seen in ours. 
We are told that the nearer the moon comes in conjunction 
with the sun the brighter is her light towards the heavens and 
the earth. It is certain that the nearer we come to Jesus 
Christ, the sun of righteousness, the more shall his light shine 
upon our faces, and the more shall we shine in that light among 
men. We must not permit the world to come between us and 
our glorious sun. If the photographer did not take off the 
curtain from his instrument no image could be produced though 
one should sit long before it. We must live in the presence of 
Christ with no veil of worldliness between his face and ours if 



o34 The Question of the Centuries 

we are to gain his image; then men shall take knowledge of us 
that we have been with him. 

The glory we behold when gazing upon Christ sinks into our 
own souls, changes our inner being, and then, as a natural 
consequence, our outer life. Gazing downward we lose hold of 
all that is noblest and divinest in human life, and by a progres- 
sive declension we may lose our hold on all that sublimates and 
ennobles us. We may thus sink deeper and deeper until all 
the angelic in us becomes satanic. 

The title of this sermon is suggested by the Greek word used 
by the Apostle and translated by us, changed or transformed. 
The Greek word is from meta f denoting change, and morphe, 
meaning form or shape. Many kinds of metamorphosis are 
spoken of by scientific and other writers. There is that 
metamorphosis which results from development, as in zoology, 
-each change from ovum to larva, from larva to pupa, and 
from pupa to imago. These changes constitute a metamor- 
phosis; or in entomology illustrating the changes in human, 
animal and insect life. This latter includes the alteration 
which an animal undergoes after its exclusion from the egg 
until it reaches the general form of its distinctive individual 
life. The same is true in botanical life. The term is em- 
ployed by Liebig and others as descriptive of various forms of 
chemical action, by which a given compound is caused, by the 
presence of a peculiar substance, to resolve itself into two or 
more compounds; thus sugar, by the presence of yeast, into 
alcohol and carbonic acid. The poets have caught the same 
thought, and they use this term to express various poetic con- 
ceptions of miraculous transmutations of persons, animals, or 
things. Thus Browning in the "King and Book" asks, 

Where is the gloriously decisive change, 
The immeasurable metamorphosis 
Of human clay to divine gold? 

But the most wonderful, the truly miraculous, the gloriously 
divine metamorphosis is that by which a sinner becomes a 
saint ; a child of Satan, a child of God ; an heir of perdition, a 
joint heir with Christ to immortal glory. The wonders of grace 
surpass those of nature. God in re-creation gives us grander 



The Glorious Metamorphosis 35 

displays of wisdom, power and glory, than in creation in its 
highest development. The glory attained by the child of God 
now is but the promise of that fuller blessedness which shall 
one day be his. Finely has it been said that in the presence of 
Christ we have not the twilight of evening but of morning, 
and however bright the light may now be, we know that the 
curtain shall one day lift higher and higher and beyond we 
shall have glory on glory. 



The Threefold Life 

TEXT: Titus 2:12, "We should live soberly, righteously and godly 
in this present world. "' 

IF YOU READ the chapter from which this text is taken 
you will agree with me in saying that it abounds in prac- 
tical suggestion and important instruction. In the early 
part of this verse we have a statement of the things which the 
grace of God teaches us to deny. But religion is not made up 
of negatives only; there must be the doing of good as well as 
the denying of evil. In harmonizing these two characteristics 
of true religion the sincerity of our profession is proved, and 
the blessedness of true religion is illustrated. "We have here a 
suggestive and instructive epitome of what the grace of God 
teaches us to be and to do. This summary of obligations 
covers a very wide range ; indeed, we may say that it covers the 
entire range of duty. That this is so, will appear when we 
consider the relation in which the statements of this text stand 
to one another. 

It is important to observe that the word " soberly' ' refers to 
our duty to ourselves; it implies a suitable and reasonable con- 
trol over all our desires and activities. The word ' ' right- 
eously" widens the range; it refers to our duties to our fellow 
men. It shows that true religion teaches us to perform those 
duties with fidelity in all our relations in life. This word in- 
cludes all our promises and relations to our friends and neigh- 
bors of every class. The word " godly' ' still further widens, 
and finally completes the range of duty. It sets forth our 
obligations to God; it shows that in the performance of our 
duties to ourselves and to our fellow men we should have refer- 
ence to the will of God; it indicates what a truly pious man 
will regard as the dominating purpose, as the controlling mo- 
tive of his life— the will of God. The man who can fill rightly 



The Threefold Life 37 

this ever- widening circle of obligation will meet all the re- 
sponsibilities of this present world, and will be prepared for 
the enjoyment of the world to come. Let us look more closely 
at these widening circles of obligation. 

We are here exhorted, in the first place, to live soberly or 
discreetly. Attention has already been called to the fact that 
this word refers to our duty to ourselves. It is important to 
discover, if we may, its exact meaning; and it is not difficult to 
learn what that meaning is, as we have several examples of 
the use of the word in the New Testament. A comparison of 
its uses shows that it means the having of every appetite and 
desire under the control of reason. It suggests that men 
should act in all the varied circumstances of life wisely, mod- 
erately, and discreetly. 

If we analyze this thought more fully, we shall see that we 
are here taught to exercise complete self-control; and, to begin 
at the lowest point, we are to exercise this control over all the 
baser passions of our nature. Nowhere does the Bible teach 
that the soul is to be purified by the torture of the body. Ke- 
ligion holds the body in high honor, and for that very reason 
religion teaches that our bodily life should be pure and holy. 
The lower place is the rightful place for the lower nature. 
Only as that nature usurps the higher place does it become dan- 
gerous. But we must advance a step; this self-control includes 
also a proper restraint, even upon the more refined and aesthetic 
elements of our nature. These rightly have a sphere of oper- 
ation; and within that sphere they are to be properly indulged. 
Christ loved the beautiful in creation. God is a God of 
beauty in all the forms of its manifestation. He has given the 
mountain its grandeur and the valley its quiet beauty. To 
cloud and mountain, to flower and to forest God has given 
beauty not necessary merely for purposes of utility. Beau- 
tiful homes adorned with statuary and paintings, the results of 
wealth and genius, adorned with books and all else that may 
minister to cultured minds and aesthetic tastes, have their place 
within discreet limitations and when used for proper ends; but 
the old-fashioned virtues of economy, simplicity, and honesty 
need to be earnestly emphasized in our day. We are constantly 
in danger of being carried away by the delights to which 



38 The Question of the Centuries 

wealth ministers. Extravagance is one of the crying evils of 
the hour. The fountains of benevolence are often dried up 
because of the desire to minister to mere self-indulgence. 

The spirit of self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good 
of men needs to be earnestly cultivated in many churches and 
homes. When churchmen and churchwomen forget that their 
highest aim in life is to advance the kingdom of God in the 
world they rob themselves of their chief joy, and degrade them- 
selves to the level of men and women who live for this world 
alone. The children of God are more capable than the children 
of the world of the enjoyment of all that is good and beautiful. 
They alone are able rightly to use all that God has made to 
minister to the beauty of character, to the purity of Christian- 
ity, and to the glory of earthly existence. But when they 
change the use of these gifts into abuse, they take the cro T .vn 
from their own brows and consent to be the children of time 
rather than of eternity; the sons and daughters of the world 
rather than of God. We must never for a moment admit that 
the children of this world are as capable as the children of 
God of getting the highest enjoyment out of the things of time 
and sense; but we must ever affirm that the children of God 
receive their highest enjoyment when they live above this life 
and make this life minister to the life that is to come. 

If we live soberly we shall find that we are exercising a 
wise control over even our lawful professional ambitions. 
These ambitions have their legitimate place. I am not an ad- 
vocate of a monkish seclusion from the duties and enjoyments 
of this life. I uniformly urge young Christians to be in the 
world, even though in the highest sense they are not of the 
world. I say to you, dear young people, strike out boldly, 
grandly, wisely for the highest place which your trade or pro- 
fession can bestow. Master all its details; secure all its 
honors ; never take second place, if you can help it, in any walk 
of life. But remember at the same time that this world is not 
all. The man who lives for this life alone does not attain 
this life in the fulness, richness and blessedness of its possi- 
bilities. Only he who lives for the eternal life as well as the 
temporal life becomes master of both worlds. The man who 
lives for this life alone loses both worlds; the man who lives 



The Threefold Life 39 

chiefly for the other world wins both worlds. Let me urge you 
now to look at things calmly, deliberately, wisely. Lift the 
veil that surrounds your earthly course and duty. Gaze upon 
eternal verities, as well as upon life's fleeting vanities. 

Every truly thoughtful man must see that eternal verities 
utterly dwarf earthly verities. Every wise man must know 
that the sunlight of the eternal world throws into dark shadow 
the brightest light of our earthly life. I urge you to run the 
race of life bravely and boldly; but at the same time to run it 
lightly and safely. Do not unduly magnify the prizes of 
earthly achievements; they fade under careful examination; 
they disappear when most we need their ministry. It is said 
that Queen Elizabeth, in her last speech to her last Parliament, 
said of her great crown, "It seems grander to those who look 
at it than to those who wear it." A similar remark might be 
made of all the attainments of life which men most earnestly 
prize. With their possession comes inevitable disappointment. 
Only he is truly master of the world who has crucified the 
world. The man who makes the pleasures and honors of this 
world the chief aim of his life, the man who makes anything 
short of the great God the object of his desire, affection, and 
reverence, has missed life's chief duty and earth's highest 
glory. The man who lives for himself is out of tune with the 
great and glorious beings in both worlds who bow in adoring 
reverence in the presence of the eternal God. The man who 
forgets God and lives only for himself, is an instrument un- 
tuned and so he makes discord in the midst of a glorious, 
harmonious, angelic and divine orchestra. As the heliotrope, 
as its name so beautifully implies, turns to follow the sun, so a 
man of noblest type follows Jesus Christ as the ideal man and 
the sun of righteousness; Jesus Christ who lived to do the 
will of God and to save lost men. Only as we catch his spirit 
and imitate his example, can we possess his character and share 
in his glory. 

We are exhorted, in the second place, to live righteously. 
The word "justly" would more correctly translate the original 
word here employed than the word righteously. We know that 
the word "righteous" is often used in the New Testament in 
what theologians call an objective and forensic sense. That, 



40 The Question of the Centuries 

however, is not the idea of the inspired writer in this instance; 
and to give the word that meaning here would produce con- 
fusion in the apostle's use of terms. Here, as the best inter- 
preters affirm, the word has no reference to Christ's righteous- 
ness; it refers rather to moral rectitude, to our duty to our 
fellow men in all the relations of life in which we stand. It 
includes our duty to our neighbor, and thus widens the sphere 
to which the word soberly introduced us. Under the guidance 
of the word now under consideration we enter upon a wider 
sphere, one having to do with the proper performance of our 
duty to our fellow men. It teaches us that we are not need- 
lessly to injure any man in property, in reputation, or in 
character. It shows us that we are to have a due regard to the 
welfare of his body, to the development of his mind, and to 
the salvation of his soul. We may, at times, be obliged, be- 
cause of our regard for our fellow man, to speak to him 
severely, because truthfully, regarding his course of conduct; 
but even the utmost plainness of speech may be softened by 
the spirit of love which prompts the utterance. Never did 
preacher speak so plainly as our blessed and loving Lord; 
never did such terrible l * woes ' ' come from human lips, as were 
those he uttered; but he baptized his most terrible denuncia- 
tions in tears of tenderest affection. We have no right to set 
a bad example before any man, woman or child; we have no 
right to live only a negatively good life. Our entire influence 
ought to be on the side of open obedience, and of positive and 
continuous devotion to truth and God. 

This thought necessitates a step in advance, in harmony 
with the teaching of the word we have translated "justly. " 
We are to render to every man his due; we should be just in 
our dealings, charitable in our judgments, ever slow to take 
offense and ever ready for reconciliation. We should be with- 
out blame in our conduct, without reproach in our speech, and 
without suggestion of evil in our thoughts. We are divinely 
exhorted to provide things honest in the sight of all men. I 
am here setting up a very high standard of moral living; but 
it is not any higher than that uniformly taught in the Word of 
God and illustrated in the life of Jesus Christ. We are God 'a 
representatives among the children of men. The world has a 



The Threefold Life 41 

right to expect more of us than of its own disciples. We should 
not forgive ourselves if we did not live above the world, above 
its maxims, and above its moral standards. We are the chil- 
dren of God, heirs of God and joint -heirs of Jesus Christ. Our 
home is in the skies; our inspiration is divine; our strength is 
superhuman; and we should be more like God than any other 
beings in this broad universe. Men should take knowledge of 
us that we have been with Jesus, and have learned of him and 
have become like him. 

Living righteously implies, furthermore, that we are to be 
active in securing the spiritual good of all men. As I have 
before implied, ours is not to be simply a negative life. We 
know that God wills not the death of any man, but would have 
all come to him for light and life; so must we strive for the 
highest good of those under our influence. It has been well 
said that the Christian is to be a loadstone to draw men to 
Jesus Christ. We know that if Christ be lifted up, he will draw 
all men to himself. He is the mightiest magnet this world has 
ever known to draw men from self and sin to holiness and 
heaven. If we keep near to Christ even we shall possess some- 
thing of his drawing power; something of his heavenly light 
and life; something of his matchless beauty and spotless glory. 
By the marvelous alchemy of divine gTace we shall be loadstones 
to draw men to Christ, if we be diamonds to reflect his light 
and life. In a single word, a right life is a Christ-like life; a 
righteous life is a life of faith upon the Son of God; and a 
Christly life before men is the practical fruit of divine faith. 

We are here taught, finally, that we are to live not only 
soberly and righteously, but also godly, or piously in this 
present world. We are to live in the faithful performance of 
all our duties to God. This sphere includes the two previous 
spheres in which we have walked. Duty to God includes all 
other duties. The word "duty" was once spelled duety; duty, 
therefore, is just what is due in our varied relations— due to 
ourselves, due to our fellow men, and due to God. We began 
with our duty to ourselves; we moved forward in the widening 
sphere to our duty to our fellow men, and now our sphere has 
still widened until it has reached beyond these to its utmost 
limit in duty to God. This thought runs through all other 



42 The Question of the Centuries 

duties here mentioned. The apostle has elsewhere told us that 
whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, all is to be done 
to the glory of God. Personal and relative duties are to be 
performed with reference to God's command and with an eye 
single to his glory; but there are direct duties which we owe to 
God, and which ought to be emphasized. What are some of 
these duties which appear before us as sinful men and women 
in our direct relations to God? 

Perhaps the very first duty is repentance toward God and 
faith in Jesus Christ. After our Lord had performed the 
miracle of feeding the thousands with the five barley loaves and 
the two small fishes, the people came to him, asking: "What 
shall we do that we may work the works of God?" The an- 
swer of Jesus was : ' ' This is the work of God, that ye believe 
on him whom he hath sent. " This is a remarkable statement 
by our blessed Lord. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, 
to find in the writings of the apostles a statement which shows 
more clearly that our true spiritual life finds its source in 
faith in Christ. Such faith is the fountain whence streams of 
obedience to God and blessings to men must continually flow. 
The duty of repentance was the great burden of the preaching 
of John the Baptist, and of Jesus the Christ. Any one who 
has not given special attention to this matter will be sur- 
prised when he first examines it, to discover the harmony ex- 
isting between the preaching of Christ and his forerunner, 
regarding the universal and imperative duty of repentance. 
Each insists, with the utmost emphasis, on the duty of repent- 
ance, in connection with the coming of the new kingdom. 
Only as that duty is performed are men prepared for the ad- 
mission of the principles of that kingdom into their hearts. 
The insistence upon repentance is by no means an arbitrary 
command. It is in harmony with the ripest principles of hu- 
man philosophy, as well as with the unvarying demands of 
divine instruction. Until the heart is emptied of the love of 
sin, it cannot be filled with the love of God; but, more strictly, 
it must be opened to receive the love of God before it can be 
emptied of the love of sin. We cannot follow the footsteps of 
Jesus Christ, except as we turn away from the paths of evil. 
Christ knew what was required for entrance into his kingdom 



The Threefold Life 43 

and he constantly emphasized the duty of repentance, as did 
his forerunner, and as did his apostles. 

There must also be faith in Jesus Christ, as another duty 
which God invariably demands. No man can please God ex- 
cept he give him his unquestioning trust. Without faith, it is 
absolutely and eternally impossible to please God; without 
faith in our fellow men, it is impossible to please them. Shall 
we give our fellow men our trust and refuse it to God? How 
dare a man deny God his utmost confidence! I would here and 
now urge you, with the earnestness born of deep conviction, 
that you exercise faith in Jesus Christ, the faith which works 
by love, the faith which manifests itself in instant obedience 
and in doing good works, as its natural fruit. 

If we are to live godly, we shall find that obedience is one 
of the duties which we constantly owe to God. Obedience to 
God is one of the most striking characteristics of the Christian 
life. God has himself taught us that, "to obey is better than 
sacrifice. ' ' He has in many ways shown his pleasure with 
practical obedience, and his just displeasure with those who 
refuse that obedience. He has himself asked this question and 
given this answer, "Israel, what doth the Lord thy God re- 
quire of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his 
ways, and to love him, and serve the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart.' ' God must be served with the whole heart. Half- 
hearted obedience is disobedience. Involuntary obedience is 
not obedience. Finely did Matthew Henry say: "We must, in 
a course of obedience to God's will, and service to his honor, 
follow him universally, without dividing; uprightly without 
dissembling; cheerfully, without disputing; and constantly 
without declining ; and this is following him fully. M If we so 
follow God we shall indeed "live soberly, righteously and 
godly, in this present world ; ' ' and when this life shall cease, 
we shall have a glorious entrance into the upper kingdom where 
we shall joyously serve God both day and night, world with- 
out end. 



The New Creation 

TEXT: II COR. 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: 
old things are passed away; behold, all things become are new." 

THE CHAPTER from which this text is taken ought not 
to have been separated from that which precedes it. We 
know that the division of the Bible into chapters and 
verses is the work of man and not of God; and we know also 
that it is a work which often was very imperfectly performed. 
This chapter is so closely connected in thought with the pre- 
ceding that it is really an inseparable part of the discussion in 
that chapter. In the previous chapter we have as the main 
subject some of the characteristics of the work of the ministry. 
The fidelity and honesty with which the apostle Paul and those 
associated with him labored, as well as the dangers which they 
incurred, and the consolations which they enjoyed, these form 
the heart of the discussion. In the present chapter we have a 
full explanation of the motives and comforts of the ministry. 
Pew chapters in the Bible so abound in exquisite beauties of 
thought and expression. The Word of God might well be 
studied for its rhetorical beauty, and for its intellectual stim- 
ulus, apart from its spiritual truths. 

Coming to the text itself we have; in the first place, a con- 
dition affirmed— ( ' if any man be in Christ. " This form of 
expression is Pauline to an unusual degree. You will remember 
that he uses it with great frequency and in a variety of con- 
nections. We have such expressions as these: "the heavenly 
places in Christ ; ? f "he chose us in him ; ' ' " bestowed on us 
in the beloved ; ' ' "in him we have our redemption ; ' ' ' ' the 
good pleasure which he purposed in him; " "to sum up all these 
things in Christ ; ' ' "in him, I say ;" "in him also we were 
made a heritage ; ' ' "we who had before hoped in Christ ; ' ' 
"in him also ye having heard the word of truth. " Such ex- 
pressions as these, and ' ' in himself ; ' ' "in Christ, ' ' etc., occur, 



The New Creation 45 

it is said, one hundred and seventy-six times in Paul's epistles, 
and thirty-six times in the epistle of Ephesians alone. 

This is certainly a remarkable phrase, a profound formula, 
a subtle expression, involving a meaning deeper than human 
language can fathom. This expression sets forth Jesus Christ 
as the atmosphere in which the believer moves, as the source 
whence his life comes, as the root of his character, as the 
controlling influence of his life, as the arena of all his activ- 
ity, as the object of his love and as the goal of his desire. 
It represents Christ as the believer's spiritual home, in a 
word, as his all and in all. 

Christ is the sustenance by which the believer lives, and 
when a man enters into Christ, he is born from above. He is 
then a new creature and possesses a new nature. His will is 
changed; his understanding is illumined, and his heart is in- 
spired. Christ becomes the centre of his entire being and 
Christ's will the law of his life. These expressions thus de- 
note the closest and most intimate union and communion. The 
life of the believer and the life of the Lord becomes one life. 
The union is such that Christ can best represent it by the 
union between the vine and its branches. Only as we thus 
abide in Christ and he in us can we become fruitful, or even 
retain our spiritual existence. Believers are now partakers 
with Christ in his sufferings; and they shall at last be part- 
ners with him in glory. 

This relationship is set forth by the baptismal act and 
formula. The formula properly translated is not, "In the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," 
but "into" the name of the persons of the blessed Trinity. 
This change in the form of the preposition is profoundly sig- 
nificant, and it is of great importance that the formula should 
be properly given. In this connection the preposition "in" 
would mean in reference to the name, or by the authority of 
the Trinity. But into suggests more than relationship to or by 
the authority of; it sets forth identity in character, union in 
being, and unity in purpose and life. It involves an allegiance 
to, and a fellowship with the triune God which are peculiarly 
tender, solemn, beautiful, and divine. The thought of the 
formula is in harmony with the significance of the act of bap- 



46 The Question of the Centuries 

tism. Baptism sets forth a death, a burial, and a resurrec- 
tion. The external act symbolizes a profound internal experi- 
ence of death to self and sin, of partnership with the new life 
that is hid with Christ in God, and of a resurrection to walk 
in newness of life before men. Most significant spiritual 
truths are thus taught by the Pauline expression i i in Christ. ' ' 
May God help all believers to come into a deeply spiritual 
realization of the significance of their communion with Jesus 
Christ! May God help us to realize that we are, with absolute 
literality, partakers of the divine nature! 

But all men are not in Christ Jesus, are not united to him in 
life, purpose and destiny. Many are openly or secretly opposed 
to Jesus Christ. The Scriptures everywhere recognize these two 
classes of men. Under manifold figures this idea is again and 
again emphasized. It is deeply solemn that while one class of 
men are in Christ Jesus, with all the fulness of meaning which 
the phrase implies, another class of men are opposed to Jesus 
Christ, with all the solemnity in life and destiny which this 
opposition includes. The Word of God represents the race as 
sheep that are lost and sheep that are found, as those who 
have joyfully accepted or those who have rudely refused the 
gracious invitation of the divine host to a princely feast. We 
have the ^ve virgins who were conspicuously wise and the five 
who were hopelessly foolish; and in the august picture of the 
great day with its white throne, its divine judge, and its 
assembled hosts, we have the goats on the left hand, while the 
sheep are on the right. A deep solemnity attaches to these 
positive anirmations and parabolic representations. We also 
in the same divine record read of those who are dead, and who 
are sharply distinguished from those who have been quickened; 
of those who were in darkness, but who have been translated 
into God's marvelous light; of those who are distinctly called 
the children of God, and of others described as the children of 
wrath and of the devil; we also read of those who are not con- 
demned, and sadly of those who are condemned already. All 
have gone astray, but some have gratefully returned unto the 
Shepherd and Bishop of their souls; some were once afar off, 
but are now made nigh by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. 
You are to-day either in Christ or out of Christ. There is no 



The New Creation 47 

alternative; there is no middle ground. You are either with 
and for Christ or against him. If you are against him, reject- 
ing the offers of his love, and refusing the invitations of his 
grace, he must at last banish you, because you first banished 
yourself from his glorious presence. If you are in Christ, 
you are now sharers in his strength, blessedness, and joy, and 
at the last you shall be partakers of his fullness, felicity, and 
glory. No matter what character men formerly possessed, if 
they are in Christ Jesus they are candidates for glory, and will 
be sharers in eternal blessedness. 

We notice, in the second place, the character affirmed of the 
man who is in Christ Jesus— " He is a new creature. " The 
literal translation of the phrase is a new creation. Frequently 
in the New Testament the word which is here translated creat- 
ure means creation. It denotes the act of creating, and also 
the thing thus created. It is sometimes applied to the uni- 
verse in general, and sometimes and especially to mankind. 
We have the words, "The new man which after Christ is 
created in righteousness and true holiness. " The great truth 
here taught is that the new character manifested by believers 
is so different from that which they formerly possessed and 
exhibited, that no change less than a new creation can account 
for the difference. The change is so great that the man may 
properly be described as made over again, and thus as having 
become a new man. There is in every true conversion a mani- 
festation of divine power as truly as in the creation of the 
world itself. The old man is not patched up and mended; the 
old man dies and is buried and a new man created in Christ 
Jesus comes forth as if from the tomb of a dead man. This 
new man shows his newness by possessing new views, by mani- 
festing new desires, by being governed by new motives and 
animated by new aims and hopes. Christ is confessedly and 
joyfully enthroned in the centre of his soul; self is joyously 
and completely dethroned. 

Many who are truly converted cannot lay their finger on the 
exact date of the birth of this new life in their soul. It came 
gradually as the rising sun, scattering the clouds of night and 
illumining the earth with its radiant beauty and its dazzling 
splendor ; but there is a time in God 's knowledge when the line 



48 The Question of the Centuries 

was crossed and when the new life was begun. God knows the 
moment of death, of creation, and of resurrection. It is not 
necessary to the genuineness of our conversion that in all 
cases we should know the exact moment of the death of the 
old man and of the birth of the new man. Death is death; 
and life is life. To transmute death into life requires an ex- 
ertion of divine power as truly as did the raising of the daugh- 
ter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, or the brother of 
Martha and Mary. In the mind of God there must be a mo- 
ment when that divine power is exerted and when the new 
life is begun. There is really no shading of death into life, 
but the chasm separating the two is instantaneously crossed 
in Christ's knowledge. 

The process of dying may indeed be greatly prolonged, but 
there is a moment of life, and another when the spirit takes 
its flight and the man is dead. The process of living may be 
prolonged, as far as the development of this life is concerned; 
but there is a moment when it begins, a moment when a man 
by personal faith comes into touch with Jesus Christ, the. 
author of life, and that moment the man so believing has life 
in himself. These statements are in harmony both with the 
teachings of the Word of God and with the experience of many 
believers. 

Language such as is used in this text is common among all 
nations to describe great changes in human experience and 
condition. Among the Jews conversion of a man from idol- 
atry and wickedness was often denominated a new creation. 
All men readily understand the force of language such as is 
here employed. Men are ever ready to quibble with the lan- 
guage of Scripture, although they find no difficulty in under- 
standing similar forms of expression when applied to matters 
of worldly experience. The reality of this new creation is 
always seen where it has actually taken place. The man who 
formerly was a child of Satan now shows by his changed life 
that he is a child of God. He who formerly was a slave of 
sin is now victorious over sin and has his fruit unto holiness. 
The man who formerly was controlled by pride is now meek 
and humble. The man who once lived for this life alone now 
has his portion in God, and looks not simply at the things that 



The New Creation 49 

are seen, but at those which are unseen and eternal. The man 
who was a drunkard becomes sober and again resumes his 
place in the family and in the walks of business life. The 
man whose life was grossly impure becomes a model son, hus- 
band, and man. Every pastor has witnessed just such trans- 
formations as these. There are miracles of divine grace oc- 
curring now which are not less miraculous and divine than were 
the miracles of feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and rais- 
ing the dead performed by our Lord during his earthly minis- 
try. If a man denies the existence and operation of divine 
grace in the conversion of souls and in the transformation of 
life and character, we can safely challenge him to account for 
these marvelous transformations which are constantly occur- 
ring. No other moral change takes place on the earth which* 
is so deep and radical as pastors frequently see and joyously 
welcome. How can we account for the change of Saul the 
violent persecutor into Paul the consecrated disciple, if we 
deny the presence and omnipotence of divine and almighty 
grace? God be thanked for the power which works such mir- 
acles, which transforms lost men into happy believers. 

We ought to emphasize, in the third place, the universality of 
the change set forth—" Old things are passed away; behold^ 
all things are become new. ' ' This is a broad and sweeping 
statement; but it is no broader than the experience of thou- 
sands justifies. The change in the case of many Jews eon- 
verted in apostolic days was as great as this strong language 
would imply. Their former prejudices against Christ and 
Christianity were entirely destroyed; and their attachment to 
the faith of their fathers utterly ceased. They no longer 
trusted in the rites and ceremonies of Judaism for their eter- 
nal salvation; and they learned to love all who loved Jesus as 
their brethren whatever may have been their former condition^ 
or whatever was their nationality. How wonderful was the 
transforming power of God's grace, which could remove the 
deep-seated prejudices from the minds of Jews toward Gen- 
tiles, and Gentiles toward Jews in that early day! Gentiles, 
were, perhaps, as much under the influence of this prejudice 
as were the Jews themselves; but they were willing to aban- 
don it under the influence of this new light and love. Thejr 



50 The Question of the Centuries 

gave up their degrading idolatries and received Christ as the 
only hope for lost men and women. 

Christianity alone truly teaches the great lessons of the 
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. Christianity 
is not the religion of any one country or century, or any race 
or condition. All other religions were ethnic, tribal, or at 
most, national; but Christianity was suited to, needed by, and 
intended for all classes and conditions of men, in all countries 
and at all times. It alone aimed to conquer the world; that 
conquest is its divine destiny and its exalted purpose. Toward 
the attainment of that end it is moving forward with rapid 
strides, increasing energy, and multiplying assurances of suc- 
cess. 

The truth taught here regarding the passing away of old 
things, and the becoming new of all things, is a truth which 
all truly converted men and women fully indorse. Their whole 
conception of life and duty is changed. In the hearts of all 
unconverted men self in some form rules; the last analysis of 
sin clearly shows that it is some form of selfishness. But now 
the supreme love of self has passed away; the love of the 
world has ceased to be dominant; the love of Christ now con- 
strains, energizes, and inspires every faculty of the soul and 
every activity of the body. The love of earthly friends is 
sweetened, ennobled, and purified, and it is subordinated to the 
all-controlling love of Jesus Christ. The Christian is now con- 
secrated to higher and holier objects than selfish pursuits. The 
imagination feels the uplifting touch of Christ's presence, and 
it is henceforth used for the exaltation of life and for the 
glory of God. 

The Bible also is a new book. A new meaning is found in 
its old words. Texts often repeated are now throbbing with 
new life and radiant with heavenly glory. God is now a new 
Being to his new-born child. He is no longer merely the 
Creator of the universe, but ?s a personal friend and a recon- 
ciled Father. Fellowship with God is heaven begun. A new 
love for all mankind is often found in the heart of the new 
creature in Christ Jesus. Only a man possessed of divine love 
can be a true philanthropist. Christ was the Son of man as 
well as the Son of God. He was the head of a new race. He 



The New Creation 51 

is the author of a new creation. Only as we catch his spirit 
can we live over again his life. The great Chalmers preached 
1 or years before he knew fully what it is to be a new creature 
in Christ Jesus. When he came forth from the room in which 
this experience came into his soul, a new life was in his heart, 
a new light in his eye, and a fresh eloquence on his tongue. 
The people marveled at the change which had taken place in 
his preaching. No longer did they hear formal essays, but 
glowing exhortations, thrilling experiences, and irresistible in- 
vitations. 

Every new creature in Christ Jesus has also new hopes for 
the future. This earthly life is now for the first time rightly 
understood; it is simply the vestibule of a higher and nobler 
life. He who lives for this world alone does not truly live 
even for this world; he has missed life's true meaning and 
highest glory. The man who lives for the world to come wins 
both the life that now is and that which is to be. In such a 
man's heart and on his lips there are even now the first notes 
of a new song which will be sung in its fulness and blessedness 
in the new heavens and the new earth. Let us prove that we 
are new creatures in Christ Jesus by living the Christ life here 
and now. Come now to his feet and to his heart; die to self 
and sin that you may live to Christ and for heaven! 



The Winning Race 

TEXT: Heb. ia:i, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a 

cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which dotfc 

so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is 

set before us." 

IX TKE preceding chapter the writer described with great 
fullness the heroes and heroines of faith. That chapter is 
a magnificent picture gallery on whose walls hang the im- 
mortal portraits of the victors through faith. They had fought 
a good fight; they had won a glorious victory. We are still in 
the fight; we are still running the race. But there are sympa- 
thizers with us in our trials and triumphs. Heaven is nearer 
earth than we sometimes suppose. Earth is not a small island 
in God's universe cut off from all communication with the 
mainland. The spirits of just men made perfect are in some 
sense cognizant of and interested in our struggles; most of 
all, Christ himself* is our great example and helper. 

I. Attention is called, in the first place, to the encourage- 
ment we have in running the race. The exhortation here con- 
tinued was really begun in the 10th chapter and the 19th verse ; 
but at that point it was broken off that the writer might in- 
troduce the wonderful examples of triumphant faith which 
occupy the remainder of that chapter. Now he returns to the 
subject then dropped for the purpose mentioned; and now he 
continues the exhortation with accumulative force, and with 
this increased momentum he presses his argument with irre- 
sistible power. He assures us that we are surrounded by nu- 
merous witnesses. 

It is evident that the language here is suggested by the 
games with which the writer and his readers were familiar. In 
those games multitudes of spectators occupied the circular seats 
in the amphitheater; and from that vantage point they could 
easily see all that was occurring in the arena. This thought is 
enlarged until the heavens are the great amphitheater, and 
saints and seraphs, angels and archangels, are the witnesses of 
the struggles and triumphs of Christians in their earthly 



The Winning Race 53 

eourse. To deny this reference is to miss the very point of 
the writer 's thought. Christians are, in some sense, surrounded 
in like manner with the worthies to which reference was made 
in the previous chapter. Perhaps the writer does not intend 
positively to affirm that they are familiar with earthly occur- 
rences, in the same sense as were the spectators in the games; 
but he seems to teach that in some sense they are interested 
and encouraging witnesses of our earthly trials. 

We know that these athletic and other games aroused an 
absorbing interest in that early day. The successful cham- 
pions were crowned with great solemnity, pomp and rejoicing. 
With tears of gratitude and joy their friends bore them away 
in triumph. Cicero tells us that a victory at the Olympic 
games was not much less honorable than a triumph at Rome. 
The witnesses of these games were very numerous; so the 
writer in this case speaks of "so great a cloud of witnesses." 
These heavenly witnesses, like the spectators in the circus, are 
represented as being above and around us. From their heights 
in heavenly bliss they look on with sympathy and affection. 
It was common for classic writers to speak of a multitude as 
a ' ' cloud. ' * Not less fitting, but more, is the word cloud used 
in this higher and diviner revelation. In this case, as in the 
©Id games, a multitude of spectators gives courage to the 
combatants, stimulating them to win the victory. We must 
not press this thought too far, but we may catch its sweet les- 
son, and feel its heavenly inspiration. 

Among those witnesses are some of the dearest friends we 
have ever known on this earth. Yonder on some heavenly 
height is perhaps the pastor of our youth, he who led us t« 
Christ, he who buried us with Christ in baptism, he who wel- 
comed us to the table of the Lord, and guided us in the early 
days of our Christian life. Yonder are perhaps the father 
who prayed for our conversion, and the mother at whose knee 
we knelt in childhood's holy hours, and under whose sweet 
exhortations we yielded our hearts to Jesus Christ. Let us 
catch the lesson which their presence teaches, and feel the 
inspiration which their sympathy imparts. But the greatest of 
all forms of encouragement here given is that while we rum 
we are to look away unto Jesus. 



54 The Question of the Centuries 

II. We observe, in the second place, that there is not only 
encouragement given, but precaution suggested as we run the 
Christian race— Ci Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 
which doth so easily beset us. " The word here translated 
" weight, " does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. 
It means primarily that which is crooked or hooked, and then 
whatever is suspended by a hook or crook. The word is occa- 
sionally found in classic writers referring to pride and its 
various manifestations. Usually, however, it means a weight 
or burden. No doubt there is a further allusion here to run- 
ners in the games, who were careful to lay aside any super- 
fluous weight, which might interfere with the freedom of their 
movement in running. Their clothes were made in such fash- 
ion as not to impede their running; they were careful also in 
their training to remove unnecessary flesh, and whatever el3e 
might prove a hindrance or impediment. These athletes teach 
Christians important lessons at this point. They not only 
removed all that was unnecessary in their clothing, but un- 
necessary weight in their own person. The word here might 
be applied to every weight of every kind that might obstruct 
the progress of the racer; thus it will apply to weight of the 
person, or weight on the person. A distinction is here made 
between weights and sins. Not all weights are necessarily 
sins; but almost any weight may become a sin. It is impor- 
tant to observe this distinction. Many things proper in them- 
selves become vastly improper when improperly used. We may 
make vices out of our virtues; we may make our gifts and 
graces hindrances and impediments in the Christian race. 
Many a man 's external circumstances become weights because 
of his internal conditions. Similar circumstances in the case 
of another man may become helps rather than hindrances. 
To run well we must remove unnecessary weights; to run 
well we must run light. The weight with one may be one 
thing, and with another, another. In one case it may be pride, 
worldliness, bad temper, a corrupt imagination, an unholy 
affection. With another it may be love of personal beauty, 
love of adornment, even undue devotion to commendable cul- 
ture, commendable with appropriate limitations and in right re- 
lations. But whatever it may be, it must be heroically and de- 



The Winning Race 55 

terrninedly laid aside. Unimportant in itself, if we honestly 
feel that it is interfering with our progress in the Christian 
life, we must promptly set it aside. Love of money, love of 
praise, love of success— a thousand things, not necessarily 
wrong, but wrong when they become inordinate, wrong only 
when they come between us and our duties to Christ— these 
we must set aside, though they be dear to us as a right hand 
or a right eye. Above all things beside we must run our race 
so that we may win the victory. Thanks be to God, all run- 
ners may be winners. In the old games many ran, but only one 
could win. Here all may run and all may win. May God help 
you that you may all "so run that ye may obtain! " 

We are also to lay aside "the sin which so easily doth beset 
us. ' ' The word which describes this sin is deeply interesting, 
alike in its composition and significance. The word "sin" is 
distinct from and in advance of the word weight. Every sin 
may be a besetting sin, but not every weight is even a sin. 
Both weights and sins, however, are to be put away that we 
may run successfully the appointed race. The word descrip- 
tive of this sin does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament, 
nor in the whole range of Greek literature, as learned commen- 
tators affirm. This fact makes its interpretation somewhat 
difficult. Its composition shows that it means the well-stand- 
ing-around sin, or putting the Greek thought into words more 
directly derived from the Latin, the well-circumstanced sin. 
It is the sin which has everything in its favor, time and place, 
desire and opportunity. Some have rendered it, "the sin 
which hangeth on us, ' ' and others i l the sin which specially 
winds around us and hinders our course, ' ? and still others, ' i the 
sin which doth naturally enwrap us. ' ' We may suppose that 
the word is suggested by the fact that the garments ordinarily 
worn, if not put off, would wind around the legs of the run- 
ner and hinder him in his course. We are, then, to lay aside 
the sin, whatever it may be, which clings fast to us, and will 
not readily part from us, but which clings to us as a cumber- 
some garment. 

As the runner stripped for the race, so must we lay aside 
both weights and sins which would hinder our progress and 



56 The Question of the Centuries 

perhaps entirely defeat our purpose. "While we are commanded 
to lay aside l i every weight, ' ' we are especially commanded t« 
lay aside the easily-besetting sin. The word translated "and" 
in this connection has the meaning of particularly or especi- 
ally. What are the sins which may be described as easily be- 
setting? They are different in the experience of different 
men; what may hinder one, may be of slight importance in the 
case of another Christian. We can, however, lay down some 
general principles, which will apply to sins of this class in the 
case of all men. 

There are certain sins which may be called constitutional. 
They belong to us in our bodies and souls alike. Tendencies 
to them may have been inherited, and indulgence in them may 
have greatly strengthened the inherited propensity. Strong 
on most other points, we may be weak at some given point. 
We must not, however, try to throw aside our own responsibil- 
ity on the ground of inherited tendency. We are in danger of 
throwing back to our ancestors responsibility which is our 
own. There is a great truth in the law of heredity, but never- 
theless for the indulgence of the propensity, and for its con- 
sequences, we alone are responsible. Our responsibility neither 
God nor common-sense will allow us to throw back upon par- 
ents or others. Every man has his weak point, except he be 
weak all over; that weak point he must especially guard. N« 
chain is stronger than its weakest link; when pressure is put 
upon it every other link may stand, but the chain fails of its 
purpose because of one weak spot. I observed a bow in the 
hand of a boy a day or two ago; it seemed to be entirely 
strong except at one point, a point at which the carpenter, ia 
^cutting a wedge, had made a slight nick in the bow itself. 
The boy adjusted the arrow, drew the bow with force to send 
the arrow to a distant mark, and, at the point where the edge 
of the chisel had touched it, the bow snapped. The bow wag 
only as strong as its weakest point. So it is with the resolu- 
tion, conduct, and character of every man or woman. That 
point must be most carefully guarded and constantly strength- 
ened. Knowledge of one 's weakness is necessary to the forma- 
tion of a worthy character and to obtain victory over inherent 
<evil tendencies. A holy life will consist in part in discovering 



The Winning Race 57 

our weak points that we may so fortify them as to become 
invincible. 

There are also habitual sins, which may become easily be- 
setting sins. These may be the outcome of the constitutional 
trend of which we have spoken. The tendency may be grati- 
fied until it becomes a habit, and the habit may be indulged 
until it becomes character, and the character may be so de- 
veloped as to determine destiny. These habitual sins are those 
to which we were exposed by natural temperament, and which 
we freely indulged before making a Christian profession. 
There is danger that they will return with irresistible power; 
danger that by laws of memory and association we may fall 
before their onset. It has ben well said that when we bury 
our sins at conversion, we must not too often visit their graves, 
lest they have a resurrection. The man who was intemperate 
before conversion must not expose himself by association witk 
drinking men or by visiting saloons. A man I knew somt 
years ago, who had reformed, said that the click of the glasses 
would arouse the old and fierce appetite to such a degree that 
he often had to run past the open door of a saloon. The smell 
of liquor will have a similar influence in the case of other 
men. No man who has been redeemed from the power of his 
eups should heedlessly expose himself again to danger. If a 
man will continuously put his head into the lion's mouth, he 
ought to know that one day the lion will be likely to close hi* 
jaws. Men who have ben infidels are in danger of a return te 
their skepticism, and men who have lived lives of gross im- 
purity, will be attacked on the side of their lower and viler 
nature. Against the enemy who approaches us at any one cf 
these weak points we must be constantly on our guard. There 
is danger that we may tempt the devil as truly as that he may 
tempt us. 

There are also certain sins which may be called professional 
sins, against which we must guard. They may become our 
easily besetting sins. It is exceedingly difficult for men t© 
rise above the moral standard of their profession. A subtle 
and almost mysterious atmosphere surrounds most profession!. 
They have their own standards of attainment; "they all de 
it ' ' is often a dangerous fact. The man who yields to a moral 



58 The Question of the Centuries 

wrong in his profession, to which he would not yield outside > 
must guard himself at the point where his profession specially 
touches him. Every merchant, physician, lawyer and clergy- 
man knows the significance of these remarks. They apply with 
equal force to farmers and mechanics; and, indeed, to all 
classes and conditions of men and women. We must watch 
lest we lose the simplicity of our faith and the spirituality of 
our life, lest our position as politicians, or members of any of 
the professions, shall reveal our weak point and cause us to 
fall before the onsets of Satan. 

III. Lastly, we have in the exhortation, "Let us run with 
patience, the race that is set before us, ; ' a statement of the 
temper which ought to characterize our running the race. The 
word here translated "patience" is more strictly perseverance, 
or patient endurance. This exhortation is of prime importance. 
It is worth much for us to know that life is a race, and that it 
is an appointed race, and that it must be run with great en- 
durance, else victory is impossible. Encouraged by the triumph 
of the sainted witnesses, who won the prize, and especially by 
looking unto Jesus, our great Exemplar, we are to run our race- 
with patient endurance. The race becomes vastly easier when 
we know that it is appointed by the infinite wisdom and love 
of our God. We sometimes think that no path is as rough and 
thorny as ours; and that no cross is so hard and heavy as ours. 
We often think that if we could change position with other 
men our lot would be vastly easier. We forget that we do 
not know how heavy their cross is, and that if God gave us our 
choice, perhaps, after all we would select the very cross which 
we are now bearing. Let us rest assured that our race is not 
the result of accident or caprice. The path in which we run 
is chosen for us as being most conducive, in the judgment of 
the omniscient God and loving Father, to our good and to his 
glory. Let us then be patient and heroic as we run the race 
so that at last we may win the crown. Perseverance is one of 
the noblest graces in the Christian life. ' ' Patience is genius, ' * 
said Buff on; "with time and patience the mulberry leaf be- 
comes satin, " says the Chinese proverb; "The world is his 
who has patience, n says the Italian proverb; "If I have lost 
the rings, here are the fingers still, ' ' says the Spanish proverb. 



The Winning Race 59 

Perseverance is often the noblest element of Christian en- 
deavor. "Hard pounding, gentlemen, but we will see who can 
pound the longest," said Wellington at Waterloo. The spider 
climbing the twelfth time on a beam of the roof, and falling 
each time, but succeeding when it climbed the thirteenth time, 
gave Robert Bruce, as he took shelter in the barn, and who 
had also failed twelve times, courage to make the thirteenth 
endeavor in which he met and defeated Edward and was 
crowned king. Dr. Judson must labor in Burmah seven years 
before he has a convert, but his faith never failed. His re- 
ward was abundant. Cyrus Field toiled anxiously and cease- 
lessly for thirteen years, often with aching head and sinking 
heart, wandering in the forests of Newfoundland in pelting 
rain and stormy nights, praying that he might not taste death 
until his work was accomplished, before the Atlantic cable was 
laid. We are told thft Mr. Edison's phonograph long refused 
to say the word ' ' special ; ' ' it dropped the " s, ' } and could 
only say "pecial. " Mr. Edison worked for seven months 
from eighteen to twenty hours a day to make the phonograph 
utter that single sound. The difficulty was that the material 
in his cylinders was not of a proper consistency. He required 
material delicate enough to receive impressions not more than 
a millionth part of an inch in depth, and yet firm enough fo 
carry the needle up and down, and so reproduce the vibrations 
which had made the impressions. He was repeatedly told by 
scientific men that there was no substance in existence which 
would produce the desired result. His reply was, "Then we 
must produce it. ' ' He did produce it. His boundless enthu- 
siasm and tireless perseverance secured the result. Willingness 
and ability to do tremendously hard work are the noblest form 
of genius. 

Enter this winning race now. The prize is eternal life. I 
summon you to the conflict. There is joy in the contest. The 
victory may be assured, and the reward beckons you onward. 
Fling aside the weights and sins which would impede your 
progress. They are unworthy the consideration of an heir of 
glory and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. Yonder he waits at 
the end of the course to put on your brow the victor's crown. 
His own promise is, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life. ' ' 



The Constraining Love 

TEXT: II Cor. 5:14, "For the love of Christ constraineth us." 

IT IS QUITE evident that some persons, perhaps famous 
teachers in Corinth, charged the Apostle Paul with being 
beside himself. Such a charge made against a man of 
his consuming zeal for the salvation of men is not surprising. 
The same charge was made against him by Festus, when he 
said, "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make 
thee mad. " Such a charge was made against our Lord by nil 
friends and relatives, who "went out to lay hold of him; for 
they said, he is beside himself." Often in the history of the 
Church since, worldly men and cold-hearted Christians hare 
been ready to make a similar charge against those who were 
earnest in Christian work, because of the love of Christ i* 
their hearts. Such a charge is often the highest honor whick 
can be conferred upon Christian workers. They are the only 
persons who are truly sane. Many who boast of prudence and 
wisdom in their devotion to the things of time and sense are 
really insane men; they, and not true Christians, are the in- 
sane. It would be well for the world and the church if a 
larger number of Christians were so inflamed with holy zeal 
as to merit the charge of being beside themselves. Men whe 
live for this life alone, who live for the body and the world, 
forgetting God and eternity, must be considered in the sight of 
true Christians, of holy angels, and of God as really morally 
insane. The apostle Paul wishes now to show that he was in- 
fluenced, in what seemed to his critics his extraordinary con- 
duct, entirely by the love of Christ in his soul. 

There is a little ambiguity in the phrase, "the love of 
Christ, ,; both in the Greek original and in the English trans- 
lation. The phrase may mean, Christ ? s love to us, or our lore 
to Christ. The sense is to be determined by the connection 1a 
which the words stand, and by the nature of the argument 



The Constraining Love 61 

itself. Here it is almost certain that the phrase means, 
Christ 's love to us, rather than our love to Christ. We might 
translate it, "For Christ's love constraineth us. " A gram- 
matical explanation is given by 'the learned Dr. Meyer, who re- 
marks, "that the genitive of the person after 'love' is with 
Paul always subjective." This greatly learned commentator 
cites a number of passages which clearly prove that this is the 
usage of the Apostle 'Paul. The whole argument here requires 
this interpretation. The Apostle desires to show that only this 
mighty love could influence him in the conduct which led to 
the suspicion of his insanity. His remarkable zeal was because 
of this powerful impulse; he lived under the inspiration of 
this divine love. He shows further that Christ 's love was 
revealed in his dying for all men. It seems quite certain that 
he desires to emphasize Christ 's love to us, rather than our 
love to him. 

No translation could be more appropriate than the word con- 
straineth in this connection. The original word means to hold 
together, to press together, to inclose, and then to urge, to 
impel, to excite. The idea is that of a forcible limitation, that 
of confining our attention to one object, and prohibiting us 
from considering the claims of other objects. The argument 
is that he who rightly considers the marvelous love of Christ 
toward us, as seen in his death for us, must be bound to God 
by the strongest possible cord, must be inseparably held to 
Christ and to duty in his service. We have in these words 
examples of the apostle 's careful forms of expression, of his 
wise choice of words, and of his masterly appeals to all that is 
tenderest and noblest in the human heart. The love of Christ 
was always with the Apostle Paul the constaining and per- 
suading motive. The infinite and eternal love of God, as seen 
in the self-sacrifice of Christ binds us to God and his service 
with a three-fold cord, which can never be broken. 

This subject is appropriate for us to-day. This morning 
we commemorate in the ordinance of the Lord's supper the 
atoning death of the Son of God. In this ordinance we are 
reminded of his everlasting love. Here at his table we have 
brought before us the Lord of glory as he was wounded for 
our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He thought 



62 The Question of the Centuries 

of us and ordained this feast in the darkest scenes of his 
earthly history. The cup of suffering was before him even ia 
his hours of greatest earthly triumph. Surely our hearts to- 
day will be deeply affected by the powerful motive which the 
Apostle Paul here presents. 

We may fittingly, at this point, notice some instances of 
Christ 's wonderful love It was gloriously manifested in 
what he has already done for us. Language breaks down ut- 
terly under the effort to express the love of Christ for the 
children of men. To form any suitable conception of that 
love, we would need to have a right appreciation of the num- 
ber and nature of the terrible sorrows which he endured on 
our account; we would need to know more than the Christian 
ever will know of the terrors of that second death, whose sting 
he extracted on our behalf; and we would need to appreciate 
the wonderful fact that he redeemed us from the curse of the 
law, by being made a curse for us. We know that he suffered 
without the gate that he might sanctify the people with his 
blood; that he made a full and everlasting satisfaction for the 
sins of those who receive him for their Saviour; and that thus 
he is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that 
believeth. When we think of the enormity of our sin, we are 
led to say of Christ's sufferings, "Here is love whose breadth, 
length, height and depth surpass all human or angelic com- 
prehension. ' ' There was no form of humiliation to which 
Christ did not stoop; there were no sufferings which he did 
not endure in bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. 
That we might have riches, he became poor; that we might 
have a mansion in heaven, he had not where to lay his head 
on earth. The Apostle Paul could say, "He loved me and gave 
himself for me." We know that he was made sin for us that 
we might receive forgiveness of sin. This wondrous fact will 
fill heaven's high dome with songs of praise and shouts of 
adoration. The redeemed will ever sing, "Unto him that hath 
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood and 
hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father, to 
him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen ; * ' and 
turning their faces to the throne on which sits their blessed 
Redeemer, as a Lamb that had been slain, they will strike a 



The Constraining Love 63 

still loftier note as they chant, "Thou art worthy, for thou 
wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. ' ' Com- 
pared with this love all other love is cold and dead. We know 
the love for their country of Leonidas and his brave three 
hundred Spartans at Thermopylae, as they stemmed the tide 
of Persian invasion; of Howard for his fellow men as he dies 
January 20, 1790, at Kherson, in the south of Kussia, of a 
fever caught from a patient whose suffering he was alleviat- 
ing; of the Moravian missionaries, as they incarcerated them- 
selves in a leper house to preach to the dying victims of 
leprosy; but the love of Christ is to these as the light of the 
sun to that of the stars. 

His love is shown by what he is doing now as our Advocate 
in heaven. After discharging his duty as our Substitute, he 
appears before God as our Advocate. He has entered into the 
holy place to appear m the presence of God for us. He is now 
able to save to the uttermost, because he ever liveth to make 
intercession. In all the affliction of his people, he was afflicted. 
There is no sorrow which can come to the hearts of his people, 
which he does not fully know, and in all their burdens he bears 
a full and personal part. Having suffered while on earth, he 
knows now how to sympathize although he is on his throne. 
He carried to the skies the marks of Calvary; and these 
wounds make effectual intercession for his people. Never was 
a father's pity so tender as that of Jesus Christ; never was a 
mother's comfort so personal, precious, and healing as is that 
of Jesus Christ. 

His love is illustriously displayed in supporting his people in 
life and death, and in giving them a triumphant entrance into 
his kingdom. Before leaving his disciples he assured them that 
he was going to prepare a place for them. In his matchless 
intercessory prayer, which is the true Lord's prayer, he prayed, 
"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me be 
with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which 
thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation 
of the world " His heart longed for the presence of his dis- 
ciples He desired to show them his glory with a fullness and 
blessedness impossible while he sojourned in humiliation on the 
earth. Heaven will be more heavenly even to Jesus because 



64 The Question of the Centuries 

of the presence of his redeemed; and heaven would be im- 
possible to the redeemed without the presence of Jesus. He 
will add them to the innumerable throng "who came out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. ' ' He will fashion their bod- 
ies like unto his own glorious body. He will lead them to 
fountains of living water, and he will wipe all tears from 
their eyes. He will reveal to them the hitherto inexplicable 
mysteries of providence and grace; he will still be their great 
teacher as they sit at his feet in the celestial university, learn- 
ing the deep things of God. The reality of this glory almost 
oppresses us; in its contemplation, reason staggers, and im- 
agination is overwhelmed; but love is enkindled, and adora- 
tion fills the soul with heavenly thoughts and divine peace. 
Here is glory unspeakable, joy ineffable, and bliss inconceiv- 
able. Even on earth it is true that ' ' eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him. " 

We see now how this love ought to affect the hearts of God's 
children. It will surely lead them to rejoice supremely in 
Christ Jesus, and to say with the apostle of love, "We love 
him because he first loved us. ' ' The eyes of unconverted men 
see no beauty in Jesus that they should desire him; to them he 
has no form nor comeliness. There is nothing in his life of 
lowliness to charm the lovers of sin. They pass by the man 
of sorrows without true sympathy with his sorrows and without 
true penitence for their own sins. But we have seen "the 
King in his beauty. " We know that there is no other object 
of love, to be compared with him. With the Apostle Peter 
we can say, i t Lord, we have left all and followed thee ; ' ' with 
the Apostle Paul, "I count all things but loss for the excel- 
lency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord ; ' ' with the 
Apostle Peter again, "whom having not seen, ye love, and in 
whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory; M and with the psalm- 
ist, ' ' thou art fairer than the children of men ; ' ' and c l whom 
have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I 
desire beside thee. " This is the language of every true Chris- 
tian. The believer delights to think of Christ, to read of him, 



The Constraining Love 65 

to speak of him, to hear of him, and to take up the cross and 
follow him. He never grows weary hearing and studying the 
"things touching the King. " It was said that French audi- 
ences would rather hear repetitions from Bourdaloue than 
novelties from another. It is certain that true Christians 
would rather hear of and from Christ than aught beside. To 
them there are new charms in his cross, his manger, and his 
crown. Their heaven will be in being in his immediate presence 
forever. 

Christ's love shed abroad in the heart will constrain men 
openly to confess him. As with the heart we believe in Christ, 
so with the lips we are to confess Christ. We are not to play 
fast and loose with Christ and the World. Men who are 
ashamed to own him now, he will be ashamed to own in the 
presence of his father and the holy angels. We cannot have 
Christ as our prophet to teach us, nor as our priest to atone 
for us, except we have him as our king to command us. We 
must remember that he is a princely priest and a priestly 
prince, and that God hath highly exalted Christ to be not only 
a Saviour, but to be also a King. All who cordially receive 
him will wish promptly to confess him. Our faith in the heart 
is not complete until confession is made with the mouth. The 
Bible knows nothing of any considerable company of secret 
disciples. It is utterably humiliating that men and women 
should strive to secure salvation without performing the duties 
which its possession implies and necessitates. Christians who 
are ahamed of their principles are Christians of whom their 
principles ought to be ashamed. The Pentecost believers con- 
fessed and were baptized; the eunuch confessed and was bap- 
tized; and Saul of Tarsus confessed and was baptized. Thrice 
shame on the cowards who would secretly secure pardon and 
cravenly refuse to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Sav- 
iour ! Such persons have never truly received pardon ; and such 
can never be owned at the last as the disciples of the Lord. 
It is said that on one occasion Napoleon standing before his 
troops asked for one hundred men to lead a forlorn hope. He 
frankly told them that every man would doubtless be killed the 
moment the enemy opened fire Who would dare to respond 
to this call and die for his Emperor? Lifting his voice, Napo- 



66 The Question of the Centuries 

leon said, "One hundred men forward! Step out of the 
ranks! " Did one hundred men respond? It is said that the 
whole regiment as one man instantly sprang forward in solid 
line to obey. Shall Christ call and men refuse him as the 
Captain of our salvation and the Redeemer of our souls? True 
Christian love will teach us to make any sacrifice for our 
faith and our Lord. We cannot serve God and mammon. We 
must break with the world; we must follow the Lord fully; 
we must love him more than father or mother, more than all 
beside. But his love makes obedience easy; his love cushions 
the yoke of duty, and makes it light and soft. This love is 
the mightiest motive known among men. As it led Paul to 
give himself without reservation to Christ, so it has led the 
Careys and the Judsons and ten thousand more to give them- 
selves, body and soul and spirit, to the service of God. 

The Apostle Paul in this text virtually says that the love of 
Christ has obtained and now possesses unlimited dominion 
over his soul. As he contemplates the freedom, the riches, the 
sovereignty ,the immensity and the eternity of this heavenly 
love, he was lost in amazement. At times he was so trans- 
ported with this blessed experience that he scarcely knew 
whether he was in the body, or out of the bo<ly, whether he 
was still on earth or already in heaven. This love is the sub- 
limest influence that can ever reach, fill, and dominate a human 
soul. When it surely possesses the heart a Christian will be 
constrained to do all he can for the spread of the gospel. 
Christ has removed from him an exceeding and eternal weight 
of wrath, and has given him in its stead an exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory. When we become true believers we 
become eternal debtors. We are not our own but Christ 's, who 
has bought us with his precious blood. This love is the real 
motive for all true missionary endeavor. It so fills the soul 
with its joy and peace that we cannot but tell to others the 
story of this marvelous, and matchless love. We become will- 
ing to endure any trial and to incur any risk in order that we 
may be the bearers of this message to those who sit in dark- 
ness. The idea that God should have given his only begotten 
Son to die, the just for the unjust, is such a revelation of 
God 's love that it rebukes our selfishness and inspires every 



The Constraining Love 67 

noble quality in the soul. It leads us out of the dark cellar of 
our own selfish nature and places us upon the house-top of 
our noblest selves; there we can feel the air of kindliness to- 
ward all men, and there we can bask in the sunshine of our 
Father's presence and love. 

Every disheartened Christian should take fresh courage, 
because of the constraining love of Christ. There is no need 
that he sink into despair when this constraining love throws 
its mighty and gentle arms around him. Cold and dead must 
be that heart that does not respond to the wooings of this 
mighty love. Surely the man who remains indifferent to its 
call must have a stone and not a heart in his bosom. By that 
constraining love, as seen in the cradle, and in all the early 
life of Christ, as conspicuously displayed when he drank the 
cup of suffering in Gethsemane, and as it reached its highest 
point on the cross of Calvary, I beseech every unconverted soul 
now to yield to the claims, to obey the commands, and to ac- 
cept the invitations of this loving Lord. 

This love holds us in our station and duty, as soldiers are 
held together under the banner of their country. Christ's ban- 
ner over us is love. Under the inspiration of this love timid 
women have become heroines, and brave men have become 
braver still. It has given a new and divine impulsion to life 
at every point. It fires the brain, stirs the blood, and ennobles 
the soul. It transformed the noble Paul, and finally swept him 
on to duty and to death with the force of a resistless torrent. 
It was the regnant impulse in his superb life. It took posses- 
sion of every thought, controlled every emotion, and stirred the 
profoundest depths of his soul. It still controls the true fol- 
lowers of Christ. Many worldly men cannot understand the 
power of this love; they think men are mad now, even as Paul 
was thought mad in his day. Men can understand the power 
of money. Lord Macaulay keenly felt the parting from Eng- 
land and his family circle when he went to India; the pains of 
virtual banishment were acute. But avowedly he went to 
make a fortune; the sum of fifty thousand dollars a year and 
the hope of return at the end of -Q^e or six years made his 
banishment endurable. But thousands of missionaries have 
gone to India and to the islands of the sea resistlessly im- 



68 The Question of the Centuries 

pelled by the love of Christ to them, and by Christ's own love 
in them for the souls of the lost. 

This love alone interprets the sacrifices which men and 
women thus gladly make. It has made the dungeon, other- 
wise loathsome, resplendent and glorious; it has made the 
wheel and rack softer than couches of down. It has made the 
fagot and flame a triumphal chariot to bear noble souls to 
glory and to God. O men and women, yield your hearts to- 
day to this mighty motive! In life amid all its trials, in 
death amid its coldness and darkness, and in heaven amid its 
triumphal songs and peerless glories, true Christians can 
express the dominant motive, the controlling influence, and 
the inspiring purpose of their entire life by saying with the 
Apostle Paul, "The loye of Christ constraineth us.'' 



The Raising of Lazarus 

TEXT: John 11:45, "Lazarus, come forth." 

THEEE are three recorded raisings from the dead by our 
Lord during his public ministry; there are also several 
hints showing that there may have been many unrecorded 
raisings from the dead. The first logically, perhaps chrono- 
logically, is that of the daughter of Jairus, and the second is 
that of the son of the widow of Nain; the third case is that 
of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary. This miracle is 
the most stupendous one ever performed by our Lord. It is 
recorded, however, only by the evangelist John. Matthew, 
Mark and Luke pass over it without a word of record and 
without a hint or suggestion. Why was this miracle omitted 
by the three earlier evangelists? Its omission by Luke is 
especially remarkable, because he was so diligent in securing 
and selecting the materials for his gospel. Many answers have 
been given to the question as to why the writers of the synoptic 
gospels made this omission. 

Some have said that at the time of the writing of their gos- 
pels the family of Lazarus may have been living, and the 
giving of this account might have subjected them to persecu- 
tion and possibly to death. We know that John wrote later 
than they, and that he probably wrote at Ephesus, outside of 
Palestine. Consequently the danger of exposing the friends of 
Lazarus to persecution cannot have existed in his time. But 
this answer is entirely unsatisfactory. We cannot suppose 
that Lazarus would shrink from enduring persecution, or would 
in any way deny the Lord who had called him back from the 
grave. It has also been said that the three earlier evangelists 
recorded miracles which occurred, for the most part, in Galilee, 
except that Luke relates the Perean ministry, while John con- 
fines himself to those miracles which occurred in Judea. This 
statement is true, but it does not answer the question; it only 



70 The Question of the Centuries 

pushes it further back. It is only stating in other words the 
fact which we are endeavoring to explain. Still others have 
said that the number of miracles performed by Christ was so 
large tha't all could not be recorded. This statement also is 
correct. John himself teaches us that the world itself would 
not contain the record of all that Jesus said and did; but it is 
difficult to suggest any principle of selection which would war- 
rant the retention of less important miracles and which would 
exclude the account of the greatest of all miracles, especially 
as this miracle led to the conflicts which ended in the death of 
Jesus. But we know that the Holy Ghost guided each evan- 
gelist to select out of the material at his hand those fact3 
which were best fitted to the special purpose for which each 
wrote. There was marked appropriateness, therefore, in hav- 
ing this record made by John rather than by any of the other 
evangelists. His special object was to prove the divinity of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, In the opening verse of his gospel he 
gives us the proposition, which he intends to prove and empha- 
size— " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God. ' ' The whole trend of his 
gospel goes to prove this fundamental proposition. Near the 
close he affirms that what he wrote was written that men might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. It was fitting 
that he should present this tender picture of holy sympathy, 
this beautiful illustration of family life and love, as seen in 
Christ's relation to a noble family, and to a godly home. It 
was eminently appropriate that John who speaks of Christ as 
the light and the life of men, should present him to us as the 
giver of life to one whom he loved and with whom he often 
sojourned. The miracle of raising Lazarus more than any 
other proved Christ '& divinity, and thus was admirably adapted 
to the purpose of the evangelist John. 

It is a narrative which abounds in minute touches of great 
beauty and tenderness, and a narrative whose silences are as 
voiceful, if we listen well, as are its voices themselves. It is 
a story of touching kindliness and of matchless beauty. Thou- 
sands upon thousands have read it with suffused eyes and with 
throbbing hearts. They have also received unspeakable com- 
fort from the divine sympathy here shown. Our Lord's love 



The Raising of Lazarus 71 

as here manifested is as discriminating as it is tender; for 
Lazarus seems to have been an only brother, and the hearts 
of his sisters clung to him with peculiar fondness. He seems 
also to have been the youngest of the family. We behold then 
the wonderful compassion of Christ 's loving heart ; and the 
sweetness and blessedness of his divine-human sympathy. 

It was important in writing the life of Christ that an ex- 
ample of his dealing with a household in deep grief should be 
given. Had there been an omission of these tender touches 
the picture of his life would have been incomplete, and the 
force of his example would have been greatly weakened. There 
is no duty which comes to a minister of Christ that more taxes 
his resources and more tests his skill, no duty which requires 
more delicate tact or sanctified sense than dealing with families 
in sorrow. I have often felt my utter incompetency in going 
to homes stricken with grief; and I never feel my need of 
divine help more than when I am called upon to minister to 
those whose hopes are blighted and whose hearts are nearly 
broken. The example of Christ then in this case is greatly 
helpful to all ministers of Christ and workers for souls. 

In these three raisings from the dead we have proofs of 
Christ 's power over death and the grave. He came into per- 
sonal contact with the great destroyer and vanquished him in 
every case. He rescued the victims of death from his giant 
grasp, and restored them in life and health to their families. 
Humanly speaking, as we shall later see, there is an ascending 
scale of difficulty in these three cases; but Christ proved him- 
self able to snatch from the grave as truly as from the bed or 
the bier. 

For a moment we have a glimpse of the beautiful home and 
the blessed family life in Bethany. This was a home which 
Jesus loved and to which he often repaired. Here a glad wel- 
come was given him by those two sisters and their noble 
brother. Not only in their homes but also in their hearts was 
this joyous reception given to the divine Lord. When weary 
with the conflict of foes in Jerusalem Jesus was often glad to 
cross the mountain and to find welcome, peace, and rest in 
this happy dwelling. It is delightful for us to think of the 
family life there enjoyed. He loved both the sisters and the 



72 The Question of the Centuries 

brother with a peculiarly tender and genuinely divine and 
human affection. Beautifully is this brought out in two verses 
in the chapter which we are studying; beautiful also is the 
distinction between his love for Lazarus and that for the two 
sisters emphasized. 

In the third verse his love for Lazarus is described as that 
of human friendship, but in the fifth verse, where the sisters 
are joined with their brother as objects of his affection, we 
have a word which suggests regard and esteem rather than 
affection and love as in the first instance; the latter suggests 
divine love rather than human friendship. The nearness of 
Bethany to Jerusalem makes it easy for our Lord frequently 
to visit this home and to enjoy the sunshine of this family 
love. Mary is often represented as sitting at the Master's 
feet, while Martha honors her divine guest by a faithful per- 
formance of the duties of the home. But even upon this home 
a deep, dark cloud falls, a cloud whose silver lining does not 
at first appear. Those whom Christ loves most are subject like 
all others to the trials and bereavements incident to human 
experience. Jesus is now absent, probably at Bethabara be- 
yond the Jordan; and the first thought of the sisters in their 
sorrow is of their absent Lord. In their need they turn to him 
for sympathy and help. To whom else could they go? H© 
alone had the words of life; he alone had the heart of fullest 
love and greatest tenderness. Nothing can exceed the beauty 
and delicacy of the message which they sent to the absent 
Lord. They do not ask him to come; they simply state the 
case, ' ' Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick. ' ' They are 
willing to leave to Christ's own judgment and affection all the 
results. They well know that if it is best that he should come 
he will come; they know that if he do not come his delay will 
be the result of wisdom and love; they can trust him fully; 
they leave the issue entirely in his hands. 

Lazarus probably in the meantime had died and the sisters 
are alone in their grief with their dead. Could it be that their 
divine Lord had deceived them? It is easy for us to imagine 
that these and similar questions filled their thoughts and 
pained their hearts. They do not then know that Christ's ab- 
sence was for the purpose of giving him the opportunity of 



The Raising of Lazarus 73 

making a grander display of his power and love than his pres- 
ence would have permitted. It is ever so. Christ 's delays are 
not denials. His apparent absence is often a greater blessing 
than his assured presence. 

He abode two days in Bethabara after the messenger had 
arrived. Then he determined to return to Judaea. We cannot 
suppose that the detention was caused by any special duties in 
Bethabara; but rather to afford him the opportunity of the 
greater display of his power in Bethany. He could, of course, 
have healed by a word; but his tarrying was a part of the 
discipline of love, and also a necessary incident in the mani- 
festation of divine life and power. It is evermore true that 
our extremity is God's opportunity. Not until all the sourceg 
of comfort failed these sisters does he come in his majestic 
power and in his tender affection. All things are now ready 
for the return journey. He utters the sublime enigma regard- 
ing the twelve hours in the day, teaching that we are safe in 
the performance of our duty while our day of opportunity 
lasts. The determination of Thomas suggests both his weak- 
ness and his bravery, his timidity and his loyalty, his pessimism 
and his consecration. He cannot think it possible to return to 
Judaea without meeting death at the hands of the Lord'* 
enemies; but this conviction only emphasizes his determina- 
tion. At that point our Lord plainly teaches that Lazarus ia 
dead. This he knows, not because any additional news has 
come, but from his own divine power. He will go, however, to 
wake him out of this sleep, for ' ' in the heavenly tongue ' ' 
death is only " sleeping in Jesus. " 

We glance once more at this home in Bethany. In all prob- 
ability the death of Lazarus occurred soon after the departure 
of the messenger. One day would be required to go to Betha- 
bara, a distance of twenty-five miles; two days, we are told, 
Jesus remained still in that place. It would then require a 
day for Jesus to reach Bethany, so that we have him now 
present on the fourth day. Doubtless, Lazarus was buried 
according to the Jewish custom, immediately upon his death, 
and thus it comes to pass that he was four days in the grave, 
as is later affirmed. Many friends and neighbors came to 
eomfort the sisters in their grief; this custom was common is 



74 The Question of the Centuries 

the time of Christ. There are indications that the family was 
not poor, but in very comfortable circumstances. The number 
of their friends, therefore, would be large and of the more in- 
fluential class. Martha is the first to hear of Christ's ap- 
proach and the first to go out to meet him. Mary, true to her 
character, remains still in the house; but so soon as she hears 
of the Master's arrival she rises quickly and hastens to him. 
Both are ready to speak words of partial rebuke, "Lord, if 
thou hadst been here my brother had not died. ' ' The bitterest 
drop in their cup of anguish is the thought that the Lord was 
absent. Sorrow always makes us selfish; every man's sorrow 
is the greatest that has ever been. Sorrow also leads us to 
rebuke ourselves because we omitted this or that which might 
have prevented the disaster. Christ does wisely in letting the 
sisters speak out all that is in their hearts. We never knew 
a loving heart that did not voice itself after the fashion of 
Martha and Mary. We are almost surprised to find both sisters 
expressing the same thought. Christ's reply there and then 
that their brother shall rise again does not give them needed 
comfort. . Martha knows that he will rise again at the last day, 
but that assurance does not fully assuage her present grief. 
The Lord, therefore, utters his great sentence, "I am the 
resurrection and the life. ' ' He tells her that she need not 
wait for comfort until the resurrection in the future. Here 
and now Christ is the resurrection and the life; here and now 
he triumphs over death and the grave; here and now he is a 
living, glorious, and triumphant Redeemer. He does not simply 
give resurrection life; he is the resurrection and the life. He 
possesses it evermore in himself; he bestows it evermore upon 
us. There are volumes of meaning in this double title which 
he here assumes. This statement is the very heart of this nar- 
rative, and the glorious miracle which follows is the conclusive 
proof of this sublime announcement. There is profound com- 
fort in the further assurance that those who believe in him 
shall never really die. Were ever more majestic words spoken 
than these which now come from the lips of the divine Christ? 
He stands here before the world in all the majesty and glory 
of his divinity. Those words have come down through all the 
centuries, as words of matchless sweetness and marvelous 



The Raising of Lazarus 75 

power. They have dried the tears from many eyes; they have 
banished sorrow from many homes: "I am the resurrection 
and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet 
shall he live. ' ' It is as if Christ had said, i ' I am the giver of 
a higher life. I am the giver of life which death can never 
destroy. I am the giver of a hope which blossoms and blooms 
in the tomb. I am the giver of a life which so far from separ- 
ating you from me, and separating you from your brother, will 
but bring you closer to us both; for neither death nor life shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. " 

So, then, dear friends, we make a great mistake when we try 
to comfort mourners by simply assuring them that the dead 
shall "rise again. " We ought to do more than that. We 
ought to teach them that if we are united to Christ by a living 
faith we can never die; and that we can never really be separ- 
ated from those we love. The grave may intervene, but faith 
overleaps it. Death may come; but only as the messenger to 
open the golden gates. Death will be God's servant, and above 
its voice will be the voice of Jesus, proclaiming, "I am the 
resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live." Dead as to his lower life, the 
believer is alive to his higher life. "And whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" said 
Jesus to Martha. I put it to you, each one. Believest thou 
this? O, man! O, woman! have you this life? Are you 
united to Christ by a living faith? Then you can triumph 
over death; you can smile at the grave; you can take up the 
glorious and immortal words of Paul: "O, death, where is 
thy sting? O, grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God 
who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. " 

We now see Christ revealing himself in matchless tenderness 
and in exalted majesty. We see him one moment weeping at 
the grave as a man, and the next moment speaking words of 
majesty as God. We do not wonder that all the spectators were 
astonished at Christ's tenderness, at his wonderful love for 
this honored family. It is not wrong to weep with those who 
weep. The heart is often refreshed as sorrow pours forth its 
tears. The thought has well been expressed, that we ought to 



76 The Question of the Centuries 

keep the stream of sorrow within its banks, but we ought not 
to try entirely to stem its flow. 

We cannot follow our Lord in detail through all these won- 
derful scenes; but we hear the glorious, the mighty, the vic- 
torious words, "Lazarus, come forth." We heard the heav- 
enly voice uttering its thanksgiving to the Father; and the 
same voice is heard still although with a changed tone, the 
tone of irresistible power, the tone of divine authority. We are 
not surprised to read, "He that was dead came forth. " Mar- 
velous moment, sublime victory, divine and glorious Redeemer! 
We here anticipate the time when "all that are in their grave* 
shall hear his voice, and shall come forth. ' ? The narrative, 
after the method of the holy Scripture, does not go into de- 
tails; it breaks off suddenly. It tells us in a few words the 
effect produced upon those who beheld. Many of them be- 
lieved on Jesus, but some of them went their ways to tht 
Pharisees to report the things that Jesus had done. 

Standing in the midst of these stupendous events there are 
some lessons which we can learn. First, Christ quickens those 
who are spiritually dead. He alone can quicken; he alone can 
call back to life the daughter of the ruler, the son of the 
widow, and the brother of Martha and Mary. He alone can 
arouse and vivify those who are now dead. No human voice, 
unaccompanied by divine power, can reach the dull ear, and 
move the dead heart. I pray for that power to-day. May 
God Almighty accompany divine truth by divine power at this 
moment, and may the dead be called back to life! 

Second, Christ 's power can reach the most difficult cases. 
Dean Trench and many other writers have called attention te 
the fact, already suggested in this discourse, that we have an 
ascending scale of difficulty in these three raisings from the 
dead. The daughter of the ruler of the synagogue was still 
upon her bed; life had just left her body. The son of the 
widow of Nain was not upon his bed, but upon his bier; and 
Lazarus was not upon his bed in the house, nor upon his bier 
in the street; he was in the grave, and he had been there so 
long that his sister could not bear to have his grave uncovered. 
But the mighty voice of Christ echoes through the chambers of 
death, and the dead came forth in obedience thereto. Christ 



The Raising of Lazarus 77 

can rekindle the vital flame, not only when it has just been 
extinguished, but when nothing remains but the cold ashes. 
There is no case too difficult for his divine power; no soul is 
too lost for his mighty love. 

Third. Christ uses human instrumentality in performing his 
greatest and divinest works. Human hands could remove the 
stone; human hands could loose the bandages. What we can 
do that we must do. Christ never puts a premium on human 
indolence. There are stones of ignorance, stones of prejudice, 
stones of evil habit, which we can remove; there are bandages 
of many kinds which we can unloose. This work Christ com- 
mands us to do, for in doing it we shall be laborers together 
with him for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls. 

Fourth. Christ gives liberty as well as life. There stands 
Lazarus, bound hand and foot. He is helpless; he cannot run 
in the way of duty, he cannot walk in the path of service. He 
is alive, but he is in bondage. He must be loosed, and human 
hands can loose him. All about us are men and women in 
whose souls are the stirrings of divine life, but they are bound 
with bandages of traditional opinions and prejudices against 
faith in and public confession of Christ. We must loose them. 
We must co-operate with God in the completed work of human 
redemption. 

To-day, we stand beside the empty grave of Lazarus. By 
faith we look forward to the time when the graves of the 
world shall be empty, and when the song of a redeemed church 
shall echo through earth and heaven with the triumphant 
words: "O death, where is thy sting! O, grave, where is thy 
victory ! ' ' 



The Inspiring Look 

TEXT: Hzb. 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for 

the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, 

and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." 

THIS TEXT stands in very close relation to the verse 
which precedes, the verse which was the text last Sun- 
day morning. The encouragements which the writer 
gives in that verse find their climax in the exhortation, "Look- 
ing away unto Jesus. ' ' The second verse is really a part of 
the one exhortation begun in the first verse. This climax gives 
the strongest inducement to run the Christian race with pa- 
tience. It calls our attention to Christ 's holy life, his patient 
endurance of trial, and his final and glorious victory. His 
example encourages us to run this race as the example of the 
glorified witnesses who encompass us could not. We are told 
that on the Grecian race courses were erected pillars on which 
was placed suen mottoes as, " excel, " "hasten," "finish the 
course." These mottoes would often, doubtless, stimulate the 
flagging zeal of the racer as he neared the goal. So on the 
page of Scripture such mottoes as this verse and the previous 
one stimulate us in our Christian course. It is very beautiful 
to discover the true meaning of the word translated "look- 
ing." The word by its composition shows that our attention 
is to be drawn off everything else and fixed exclusively upon 
Jesus. We are to look away from our own weakness and 
strength, away from all rites and ceremonies, away from every 
other means of grace, and to look first, last, and always to 
Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith. It is most impor- 
tant, therefore, that we should understand just now in what 
characteristics we are to see Jesus as set forth in this text. 
First, we are to look upon him as the great Exemplar of faith. 
There is a common misconception regarding the writer's mean- 
ing in this exhortation. The word "our" is not in the orig- 



The Inspiring Look 79 

inal; and its presence in our version tends to mislead our 
thought. We are not here exhorted to look upon Christ as he 
who begins and completes our faith. It may, or may not, be 
true, so far as this passage is concerned, that Christ produces 
faith in us, that he begins and completes our faith unto salva- 
tion; but that thought is not at all in the mind of the writer 
in this connection. The meaning is simply that Christ was the 
beginner and finisher of the long list of illustrious examples of 
faith in God. In this respect he occupied a pre-eminent posi- 
tion; he is in his own aim and life the most perfect model of 
unquestioning faith which can possibly be placed before us. 
He was not enumerated in the long list of heroes of faith 
given in the preceding chapter, for the apostle wished to pre- 
sent him alone, as his example was so much more illustrious 
than that of all others. He stands at the head of the line of 
noble examples of unquestioning, unfailing, and unwavering 
faith. We are to look at him as did the racers in the Grecian 
games when a former competitor and victor might stand be- 
fore the runner to cheer him in his course. As an example of 
faith Christ was the Alpha and Omega; he was the beginning 
and the ending of faith; he was the first and the last. We 
are not, then, to think of him as either beginning or finishing 
our faith; but rather as the most perfect example of faith in 
its largest sense. At him as such a model we as racers may 
now look with hope, with assurance, and with enthusiasm. 
Christ is above all comparison the most eminent illustration of 
the faith which we ought to cherish and manifest. It is im- 
portant that this explanation be given. It is quite certain that 
most readers of this passage, and often many preachers who 
select it as a text, are misled by the presence of the word 
' i our, ' ' and by the teaching of other Scripture regarding 
Christ 's relation to the beginning and the ending of our Chris- 
tian experience and victory. 

The true Christian is to keep his eye on Christ at every step 
as the pattern of devotion in doing and suffering the will of 
God, and as drawing from his power for patient endurance in 
the Christian race. Thus looking to Christ it will be easy to 
throw aside every weight; it will be joyous to guard every 
besetting sin; it will be blessed to bear the heaviest cross, and 



80 The Question of the Centuries 

to run in the roughest path while receiving his inspiration and 
enjoying his approval. Indeed, except we so look to him it 
will be impossible to lay aside our weights and sins. When his 
love fills the soul sin is necessarily driven out. His love gives 
the soul the expulsive power of divine affections. In my yard 
was a tree on which during the most biting frosts and the 
fiercest winds of winter the dried-up leaves and buds of the 
former year still clung. It seemed as if no external force could 
separate them from the stem; but with returning spring came 
the flowing sap, pulsing life, and shooting bud of the new 
vegetation. Soon the old leaves naturally dropped off; they 
were pushed off by the silent but irresistible power of the new 
life in the heart of the tree. The new buds of spring were 
mightier than the fiercest storms of winter. So the new love 
of Christ in the life of the soul will cause old habits, heavy 
weights and besetting sins to slough off, however firm they 
may have been to mere natural resolution or external solicita- 
tion. When the heart is given up to Jesus Christ, a beautiful, 
blessed, mighty life will fill the soul. 

We are also, in the second place, to look away unto Jesus as 
the atoning and joyful Sufferer on the cross, "who for the 
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the 
shame. " Our thoughts are now carried back to Christ upon 
the cross. At one time we see him on the throne crowned with 
glory, and at another on the cross crowned with thorns. The 
cross and the crown are ever near each other. Christ sways to- 
day the sceptre of universal empire because once he hung upon 
the cross as the world's Redeemer. The cross was the symbol 
of the most painful, shameful, and ignominous death. It is 
very touching to see the cross set before us in the midst of 
allusions to Christ as the victorious example of faith. We 
know that crucifixion was a Roman rather than a Jewish mode 
of execution; and that it was intended to be inflicted only on 
the lowest slaves and the vilest criminals. Cicero said, "It is 
an outrage to bind a Roman; to scourge him is an atrocious 
crime; to put him to death is almost parricide; but to crucify 
him, what shall I call it?" To the proud Roman and to the 
cultured Greek the cross was the symbol of infamy; crucifixion 
was to them an unspeakable humiliation and an indescribable 



The Inspiring Look 81 

horror. It is interesting to observe that our word "excruci- 
ating" is derived from this form of punishment. This word 
is intended to represent a pain like that which was felt on the 
cross. We have no word in our language more descriptive of 
violent agony than this. We know that from the very nature 
of the punishment the pain attending it must have been un- 
speakably exquisite; for death came only after days of tor- 
turing pain. Pilate marveled that Christ was dead when he 
had hung for only six hours on the cross. To us the cross is 
the symbol of so much that is beautiful and glorious that it is 
almost impossible for us to associate with it the ideas of 
ignominy which it once suggested. Even men of the world, be- 
cause of the relation of the cross to Christ, have associated with 
it honor and glory. We appreciate the disgrace which attaches 
to the block, and to the guillotine, and to the gallows; but in 
the early day the ignominy of the cross was vastly greater. 
Now, however, the word is associated with all that is noblest 
in sacrifice, grandest in poetry, sublimest in architecture, most 
artistic in painting and sculpture, and most aesthetic in orna- 
mentation. Then the word excited the contempt of the Jews, 
the detestation of the people of Athens, of Corinth, of Eome, 
and indeed of the civilized world; but ever since Constantine 
made it a part of the imperial standard in war, it has been 
honored among the great nations of the earth. Around the 
cross to-day there is a halo of heavenly glory. Far different 
was it when Christ hung thereon, and when the writer of the 
epistle to the Hebrews wrote our text. Then, as we have seen, 
it was the symbol of every degree of infamy. When the 
Apostle Paul in writing the epistle to the Philippians, would 
describe our Lord's deepest humiliation, he carries us down 
step by step from the sublime height of equality with God to 
obedience unto death, and then, as the last downward plunge, 
he adds, "even the death of the cross." Lower than that he 
could not go. But even in this terrible suffering there was, as 
we see in the text, joy set before Jesus. 

Marvelously beautiful is it to see how sorrow and joy, honor 
and shame unite in close relations and in striking contrasts 
around the cross. These contrasts are worthy of our careful 
examination. Our Lord had joy in his sense of obedience to 



82 The Question of the Centuries 

the will of God. To do this will he came from heaven to earth; 
and to do his Father's business was his dominating purpose 
when a boy of twelve. There was joy also in the glorious 
recompense of reward attaching to his sacrificial love. He 
looked now forward to the hour of his complete triumph. All 
earth and heaven were to testify to his innocence, his purity, 
and his divinity. The clay would come when he should see of 
the travail of his soul and be satisfied; the day would come 
when the world should know that he suffered the just for the 
unjust; the day would come when all the world should shout, 
1 ' Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. ' ' There was 
joy also in the knowledge that by his sufferings innumerable 
souls would be saved from the bondage of Satan and would 
finally enjoy the triumph and peace of heaven. He saw our 
ruined and miserable race in its sin and wretchedness; his 
heart was touched with pity, and he flew to our relief. He 
knew that by his sufferings millions would be delivered; that 
by his poverty they would be made rich; that by his stripes 
they would be healed; and that by his death they should have 
eternal life. 

His soul glowed with joy as he looked forward to that day 
when the "ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion 
with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall 
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee 
away. ' ' He looked forward to that day when a great multi- 
tude, which no man could number, should be presented fault- 
less before the presence of his Father with exceeding joy. 
There was joy also to such a heart as Christ's in healing the 
sick, comforting the sorrowing, feeding the hungry, and rais- 
ing the dead. One almost envies him the reflex joy which came 
from the joy which he imparted to weary hearts, sinking souls, 
and broken lives, all about him in his earthly course. 

Christ also despised the shame. This is very striking lan- 
guage. How shall we understand it? Does it mean that he 
despised the joys of this life? So some have thought; but this 
seems to be a very inadequate explanation. Surely the sense 
is that as compared with the joy set before him the sufferings 
of the cross were insignificant. The word translated "despis- 
ing, ' ' suggests that he lightly esteemed the pain by comparison 



The Inspiring Look 83 

with the joy, that he disregarded the ignominy, that he looked 
down with a certain sort of holy contempt on the shame and 
pain of the cross. Most instructive is this comparison. It 
shows us his love for man and his trust in God. It rebukes us 
for our murmuring at the crosses we bear, the shame we endure, 
and the efforts we make for the salvation of men, and for the 
glory of God. In the presence of Christ's sacred contempt for 
the pain of crucifixion, let us never more murmur at our lot in 
life. O, gaze upon him, looking away from everything earthly, 
from earth 's charms, defeats and victories, until the heart glows 
with unspeakable joy and is filled with ineffable bliss! 

We are, in the last place, while running the Christian race to 
look away unto Jesus as the Victorious Occupant of the divine 
throne, who "is set down at the right hand of the throne of 
God. ' ' Our eyes turn now from the cross of shame to the 
throne of glory. Beautiful again is the sudden contrast here 
suggested. Because of his elevation on the cross, we now have 
Christ exalted to the throne. Evermore the cross must precede 
the crown, the shame the glory, the death the life. Evermore 
Calvary meets us before Olivet; bearing our crosses we are 
prepared to wear our crown ; going to Calvary we are really on 
the way to Olivet. The reference here to the right hand of God 
teaches us that Christ was promoted to the highest possible 
place of dignity and honor in God's broad universe. We see, 
too, that he is represented as sitting down at the right hand of 
God. 

His work of cross-bearing is over; his atoning work is com- 
plete; his work of intercession now begins. When Stephen saw 
him he was represented as standing on the right hand of God. 
The right hand is the place of honor, of power, and of glory. 
He is on a throne both of power and of grace. We ought to 
thank God that grace and glory and majesty, blend in all the 
descriptions of that heavenly throne. He is able now to succor 
those that are tempted, because once he himself suffered being 
tempted. As our great high priest he has passed into the heav- 
ens, and now he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Though 
tempted in all points like as we are, he was yet without sin; 
he is, therefore, a high priest, who is most tenderly touched with 



84 The Question of the Centuries 

the feeling of all our infirmities. Let us then look with long- 
ing, trustful, and joyous eyes to-day upon our enthroned King; 
and let us go with holy boldness, with confidential frankness, 
unto the throne of grace. That throne is open day and night; 
it is accessible from year to year, and from generation to 
generation. It can be approached by men of every condition, in 
every land and of every language. Glorious throne, triumphant 
King, sympathetic Priest, to thee we look to-day as by faith we 
run the appointed race! Amidst all our trials, however numer- 
ous and severe, our eyes shall rest both upon our Lord's cross 
and crown, and from his heroic example we shall learn lessons 
of patience and perseverance as we press forward toward the 
mark of the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

There must be no lagging in this race. Success is due to 
our looking away unto Jesus, and yet also to our striving as if 
it all depended upon our own efforts. There is an inseparable 
union between divine power and human effort. Christ does 
the entire work, and yet we have to run the race. Divine sov- 
ereignty and human responsibility must ever be side by side 
in the entire experience of every Christian. If the racer in 
the old games took his eyes off the goal to look upon other 
objects of interest he lagged in the race, and ran the risk of 
failing to win the prize. If the world attracts our attention 
so that we fail lovingly to gaze upon Jesus Christ, we shall lose 
our inspiring motive and fail of our victorious reward. Noth- 
ing but looking unto Jesus enabled the great Dr. Judson to 
endure amid all the disappointments of his years of weary 
waiting before converts to his Lord were made. These are his 
words, "If any ask what prospect there is of ultimate suc- 
cess, tell them as much as that there is an Almighty and faith- 
ful God. If a ship were in the river, ready to convey me to 
any part of the world I should choose, and that with the entire 
approbation of all my Christian friends, I would prefer dying 
to embarking. ! f Some years later he wrote, ' ' I know not that 
I shall ever live to see a single convert ; but I feel that I would 
not leave my present situation to be made a king. " This is 
the perseverance which gives victory; this is the holy enthu- 
siasm which secures the approval of God, and fills the believer 's 
soul with divine peace. 



The Inspiring Look 85 

Professional enthusiasm fired the heart of Audubon with 
similar perseverance. Looking unto scientific triumphs he 
labored for years to complete a set of drawings of birds made 
in their native haunts. The years of toil are over, the draw- 
ings are made and entrusted to a friend for safe keeping. The 
time arrives when they are to be prepared for the public. 
Audubon calls for his drawings, and then to his dismay dis- 
covers that they have been destroyed by vermin. Brave man, 
he plunges into the forest, and by three years of incessant labor 
repairs the loss, honors science, and reaps enduring fame. O, 
how many start in the Christian race, run well for a season, 
and then drop out by the way! Such cases there were in 
Apostolic days, and such failures called forth Apostolic exhorta- 
tion, and gave sorrow to the heart of the Apostles as to the 
heart of Jesus. Such cases well-nigh break the hearts of pas- 
tors to-day. How many there are like Atalanta of mythical 
fame. Being the swiftest of mortals, she offered to become 
the wife of him who should outrun her in the race, the penalty 
of defeat on her opponent 's part being death. Hippomenes 
came to the contest, bearing, as a gift from Aphrodite, three 
golden apples, which he successively dropped in the race. Ata- 
lanta was charmed by their beauty; she could not refrain from 
gathering them. She lost the race, lost her honors, and was 
obliged to yield her heart to her deceiver. O, how the world 
drops its apples of gold, of beauty, of pleasure, in the Chris- 
tian race! Stopping to pick these apples, the eye is taken from 
Christ, the feet lag, and the race is lost. O, men and women, 
look away from everything earthly, fix the eye alone upon 
Christ, and let the motto in life, in death, and forever in 
heaven be, ' ' Looking away unto Jesus ! ' ' 



The Magi and the Christ 

TEXT: Matt. 2:1,2, "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the 
days of Herod the king, behold, Wise-men from fhe east came to Jerusa- 
lem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we 
saw his star in the east and are come to worship him." 

THE SUBLIMEST and divinest joy ever known on earth 
was born at Bethlehem. Christ in the heart, means a 
song in the mouth. Christ born in the world makes the 
world melodious with music. A songless world is a sunless 
world. Christianity has made all the harps of heaven and eart'i 
tuneful with joy. The very air was tremulous with song when 
Christ was born. Thus it comes to pass that we have the 
Magnificat of Mary, the Benedictus of Zacharias, the Gloria in 
Excelsis of the angels, and the Nunc Dimittis of Simeon. 
Angelic choirs chanted the only song of heaven ever heard by 
human ears, and a star marked a new pathway in the heavens 
to honor the birth of the ' ' holy child, Jesus. f * Let us, with the 
wise men from the East, bend over the manger cradle of the 
infant Redeemer and learn the lessons suggested by the text of 
the morning. 

The inquiry of the Magi instantly attracts our attention, 
excites our curiosity, and evokes our approval. The example 
of the Magi is worthy of commendation and imitation. There 
is no "ism" in relation to Jesus Christ so dangerous as in- 
different ism. Herod asked no questions regarding the birth of 
Jesus until he was troubled by the questions of the Magi. The 
priests and the scribes seemed to have been ignorant of the 
wondrous birth until Herod called them together demanding 
information. The people in the streets of Jerusalem passed to 
and fro in utter ignorance of the birth of the true King of the 
Jews, of the advent of a new era in the history of humanity, 
and of a new epiphany of the God of heaven and earth. Nei- 
ther the birth nor the death, the cradle nor the cross of Jesus 



The Magi and the Christ 87 

is an object of the slightest interest to tens of thousands 
to-day. As there was no room for Christ in the inn, so there is 
no room for Christ to-day because political ambitions, busi- 
ness ventures, and social aspirations fill the hearts of tens of 
thousands all over the land. There is hope for men when they 
begin to ask after Christ. The Magi, in their seeking for 
Jesus, set us a worthy example. 

They certainly knew the fact of our Lord's wondrous birth. 
This is the greatest fact in human history, or in divine revela- 
tion. It is the fulfillment of prophecy, and the realization of 
the wistful hopes of humanity. The incarnation of the Son of 
God is the center of the history of the race. All great events 
which preceded the incarnation converged toward it. All great 
events which succeed it, diverge from it. It is the pivotal 
point around which, in smaller or larger circles, all events re- 
volve. Even though there were no future life, the incarnation 
would be an event of supreme importance. It is the great and 
joyous feast of the church in family life; it is the grand jubilee 
of children in the homes of Christendom; and it is prophetic 
of the true golden age of blessing, peace and joy, for the entire 
race. It has given a new glory to life, a new trend to eternity, 
and a new radiancy to heaven. 

The Magi had approximately accurate knowledge of the 
time of our Lord's birth. The exact date of that birth we do 
not know, and never shall know. Neither the day, nor the 
year can be ascertained with certainty. Fabrieius gives a 
catalogue of one hundred and thirty different opinions con- 
cerning the year of Christ's birth; and the day of his birth 
has been placed by various sects and scholars in every month 
of the year. The twentieth of May, the twentieth of April, and 
the sixth of January, have been favorite dates with some sec- 
tions of the church. Dionysius the Little, in the year 526 A. D., 
placed the birth of Christ in the 754th year of Eome; but it 
has long been admitted that this was an error of at least four 
years. We know positively that Jesus was born before the 
death of Herod the Great; and we know by an eclipse of the 
moon, which occurred a little before his death, that Herod died 
in the 750th year of Rome. Instead of dating this year 1904, 
we ought, therefore, to make it 1908. 



88 The Question of the Centuries 

If God had designed that Christ's birthday should be a time 
of religious observance, he certainly would have revealed the 
exact date. We are to know Christ spiritually rather than 
after the flesh. There is not the slightest doubt but that 
December 25th was chosen, because at that time great heathen 
festivals were observed in Kome; and the early Christians de- 
sired to make the birth -festival of Christ a substitute for, or a 
transformation of these heathen festivals. Many early Chris- 
tians also saw that the birth of Christ, the Sun of Eighteous- 
ness and the Light of the world, placed on December 25th, 
symbolized the birth-festival of the natural sun, which on that 
date lengthens the days, decreases the darkness, and begins 
anew his heroic career. Not until the fourth century was this 
date observed with any degree of uniformity as the time of our 
Lord's birth. Let us gladly accept the fact of that birth with- 
out undue inquiry concerning the exact date. 

The Magi had some knowledge also of the place of our 
Lord's birth. Our text distinctly locates this Bethlehem as 
being in Judaea, because there was another Bethlehem in the 
tribe of Zebulun, near the sea of Galilee. It is most beautiful 
that in Bethlehem, meaning " house of bread/' the Christ, who 
is the Bread of heaven, should be born. The name Bethlehem 
is now a household word around the globe. Prophecy pointed 
to Bethlehem as the place of the wondrous birth. Marvelous 
are the providences by which God fulfilled those ancient prophe- 
cies. We might have expected that the birth would take place 
in Nazareth, but ancient prophecy must be fulfilled, and God 
will use the wisdom and ambition of men to accomplish his 
Divine purposes. Yonder sits the mighty Augustus on the 
throne of the world, and Judaea was a dependency of his vast 
empire. His empire reached from the Euphrates to the Atlan- 
tic. Over this great domain he was sole ruler. Partly for 
purposes of taxation, partly for more general statistics, and 
partly to know the warlike resources of the land, Augustus or- 
dered a general census. Doubtless, he wished to reduce Judaea 
to the state of a Koman province, but he permits King Herod to 
take the census according to the Jewish usage by a division of 
tribes. Both Joseph and Mary, although their fortunes were 
now fallen, belonged to the tribe of Judah and the family of 



The Magi and the Christ 89 

David. Bethlehem was the seat of that family and the native 
place of the royal David; to Bethlehem, therefore ,they must 

Think of the long journey from Nazareth, and especially in 
the trying circumstances in which Joseph and Mary were 
placed! Think of them as they passed town after town made 
famous in Israel's history. See them as they approach the 
town of Bethlehem. Immortal Bethlehem! Great is thy glory 
and undying thy fame among the towns of the world! Here, 
a thousand years before, David was born; here the events con- 
nected with Kuth, Naomi and Boaz occurred, and near here the 
beloved wife of Jacob departed this life. Around no town in 
the world's history is there such a cluster of suggestive names 
of women as around Bethlehem— Eachel, Naomi, Kuth, Mary. 
The heart of the traveler beats with unusual emotion to this 
day as he passes the Well of the Magi, and the Tomb of 
Eachel, and then gets his first glimpses of immortal Bethle- 
hem. Yonder is the town standing on the summit of a narrow 
ridge, while beneath the village are terraced slopes clothed 
with olives, vines and 1ig trees, and sweeping in graceful 
curves around the ridge. The journey of the reverent Magi 
becomes marvelously real to the traveler who goes even to-day 
from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. 

Who were the Magi? To this question many answers have 
been given. It seems possible in our day to answer it with 
authority. It is true that the East, whence they came, may 
laean either Arabia, Persia, Chaldaea or Parthia, with the 
adjacent provinces. When we have in mind the prophecy in 
Numbers 24: 17, concerning "a Star out of Jacob, " we can 
see how the expectation of some great king arising in Judaea, 
might be found among Eastern astrologers. We know also 
from Suetonius and Tacitus that such an opinion prevailed 
extensively at that time; we know also from the prophecy of 
the seventy weeks in Daniel, that a remarkable celestial ap- 
pearance was expected at this time. Without doubt, the Magi 
were a priestly tribe or caste among the Medes, and afterwards 
the Medo-Persians. They were the recognized teachers of re- 
ligion and science. These Magi were men of vast influence 
and power. They were students of astrology, medicine, divina- 



90 The Question of the Centuries 

lion, and incantation. In those early days they maintained a 
high position and possessed an elevated character. Simon 
Magus represents the utmost degeneracy of the ancient and 
noble Magi, just as our words magic and magician stand for 
the degradation of this ancient and noble art. It is almost 
certain that the Magi went from Persia or Babylonia to pay 
their homage to the infant Messiah. The tradition that they 
were kings grew out of the prophecy in Psalm 72: 10, "The 
kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts, ' ' and that of Isaiah 
60: 6, "they shall bring gold and incense. " Longfellow and 
others have written poems on these supposed three kings, and 
the tradition of the three kings is one of the most general and 
popular fancies of the Old World; but there is absolutely no 
authority for affirming that the Magi were kings; indeed, it is 
almost certain that they were not. Neither are the traditional 
names, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, of any authority or 
importance, except as connected with modern poetry and art. 
We do not know that there were but three of these men; the 
number three is apparently suggested by the number of gifts 
which they offered. 

These Magi say that they had seen "his star in the East. " 
What are we to understand by ' i his star ' ' ? Have we a miracle 
here in the narrative? Or are they right who say that we have 
only a natural appearance used by God to guide the Magi to 
the place of Christ J s birth ? Non-supernatural explanations of 
this star have been offered. The first was suggested by the 
astronomer Kepler, in 1630. He shows that in the year 747 
of Rome, there were three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter 
and Saturn in May, October and November. It is said that if 
the Magi started after the May conjunction, they would see 
in Jerusalem the October or November conjunction. This is 
an interesting line of inquiry. It may have in it elements of 
truth. It is, of course, simpler to introduce miraculous agency 
and believe in a star specially created to perform this service; 
but we ought still to remember that God can use a natural 
conjunction of stars for a special purpose in his providence. 
There is this difficulty in believing that the conjunction of 
stars was "his star, " because the Greek word is aster, star, 
and not astron, which would be the natural Greek word for a 



The Magi and the Christ 91 

group of stars; but this difficulty ought not to be pressed 
unduly. 

But be the facts as they may, regarding the nature of the 
star, it is profoundly interesting that God used the astrological 
knowledge of these men to guide them to the cradle of the 
world's Kedeemer. God takes men on the basis whereon they 
stand, and sanctifies their scientific knowledge to guide them 
to higher truth. The studies of the Magi stimulated their in- 
herent craving for eternal life. The study of astronomy, 
especially in the case of men naturally devout, is stimulative of 
religion. In the beautiful nights and cloudless skies of Persia, 
men found suggestions of infinity and worship. The science 
of these men was but another name for religion. Their study 
of the stars led them to him who is the Sun of Righteousness. 
All true science kneels before Christ. Christ is King to-day in 
the whole realm of truth; and truth, in philosophy and science, 
reverently worships at his feet. Perhaps science never was so 
humble, docile, and reverent as it is to-day. The agnostic 
science of a generation ago has largely given place to a science 
which loyally and lovingly owns Christ as King in Truth's 
boundless realm. Both scientists and religionists have been 
narrow, jealous and bigoted; but the time is coming when, 
hand-in-hand, they shall joyously march to the music of Christ's 
name, and then humbly bow in lowliest reverence at his pierced 
feet. O men of the West, learn to-day from the wise men of 
the East! The day may come when these Magi will rise up in 
judgment against us at the throne of God. 

They came to Jerusalem to find the King of the Jews that 
they might render him homage. Naturally they went to the 
capital of the nation to receive intelligence regarding the new- 
born king. We can well imagine their solicitude as they passed 
through the gates of the ancient city. To the guards whom 
they first meet, they present their inquiry, ' ' Where is he that is 
born Xing of the Jews?" With a look of mingled pity and 
contempt these guards make reply, "We know no king but 
Herod. ' ' Meeting next members of the Sanhedrim, they re- 
peat their inquiry, and receive but an evasive reply. They next 
ask a trader, and he replies, "What know or care I regarding 
a king? If you want to buy or sell, I am your man." They 



92 The Question of the Centuries 

still press their inquiry, and Herod finally calls the chief 
priests and scribes, and the answer is secured regarding the 
place of the King's birth, "in Bethlehem of Judaea. " 

Now the Magi hasten to the town of Bethlehem. For a time 
the star, which had so long guided their steps, disappeared. 
Tradition tells us that the Magi, being in doubt as to the 
direction which they should take, and being weary with their 
journey, stopped to draw water from the well, since called, 
"The Well of the Magi, M and to their surprise and joy, they 
saw the star reflected in the water. With fresh courage and 
complete assurance, they now followed the star "until it stood 
over where the young child was. J ' To-day it is not surprising 
that pilgrims kneel in reverence beside the silver star set in the 
pavement, indicating, according to popular belief, the exact 
place of our Lord's birth. Around the star is this inscription, 
"Hie de Virgine maria Jesus Christus natus est." Above this 
star sixteen silver lamps continually burn. Of these, six be- 
long to the Greek Church, five to the Latin, and five to the 
Armenian. Here, or near this spot, as is generally supposed, 
the Magi "saw the young child with Mary his mother. ff It 
is not a little remarkable that in this entire narrative, as seen 
in verses 13, 14, 20 and 21, a subordinate place is always given 
to the mother of Jesus. The holy child is mentioned first, and 
the honored mother last. It is always the child with Mary, in 
the inspired narrative, and never the Madonna and her child, 
or ' ' the blessed Virgin with her child, ' ' as the Roman Church 
idolatrously represents the relation between the child and the 
mother. 

The Magi showed their faith, not only by starting on their 
journey, but by their diligent inquiry in Jerusalem, and by 
their hastening from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. They are now 
abundantly rewarded for their faith and toil. They see the 
' ' holy child Jesus ; ' ' they gaze on the King of Glory in his 
earthly humiliation. The manger-cradle is mightier than the 
throne of the Caesars. Little knew, and less cared, the mighty 
Augustus about the birth in Bethlehem; but the throne of the 
Caesars has perished, and the empire of Jesus, the empire of 
divine love, rules the world to-day, and with constantly increas- 
ing power. The child of Bethlehem is the King of the universe 



The Magi and the Christ 93 

to-day. He is pulling down the strongholds of sin and Satan, 
and he is irresistibly marching to universal, beneficent, and 
glorious conquest among the nations. 

Immediately on seeing the Divine child, the Magi fell down 
and worshiped him. Perhaps the only reverence they expected 
to pay him was homage as the King of the Jews; perhaps the 
word translated worship ordinarily means nothing more than 
appropriate respect paid to a superior. But one cannot help 
feeling that the Magi had new conceptions of this Child-King 
when they saw him in Bethlehem. We cannot but believe that 
God, who guided them to his feet, gave them insight into his 
spiritual character and divine nature. We are warranted in 
believing that they paid him religious homage, genuine adora- 
tion. We, to-day, are unpardonably guilty if we do not fall at 
his feet and pay him divine honors. There are those who are 
willing to honor Christ as the noblest of men, but they refuse 
him worship as God. They affirm that he was good, but not 
God. We are warranted in saying that if he were not God, he 
was not good. He claimed to be divine, and received worship 
as God. O, men and women, fall down before him and give 
him divine homage! If we fail thus to honor him, the wise 
men from the East will rise up in the judgment to condemn us. 

The Magi next poured out their treasures at the feet of the 
Child-King. It was then, and is now, the custom in the Orient, 
that one must never visit a superior, especially a king, without 
some gift. No gifts could be more appropriate than the costly 
spices and the gold which they poured out as an expression of 
their homage. It has been suggested that these valuable gifts 
probably gave to Joseph and Mary the means of support on 
their journey to Egypt. Perhaps it is too fanciful to give a 
symbolic interpretation to the three-fold gift, making the 
myrrh indicate the prophet, the incense the high priest, and the 
gold the splendor of the king. But, whether or not we see all 
this in these gifts, the fact remains that this holy child was 
the world's Prophet, Priest and King. 

Great lessons are suggested as we stand with the Magi be- 
side the cradle of our Lord. We learn the lesson of the glory 
of motherhood, the sacredness of childhood, the dominancy of 
pure, undying, self-sacrificing love, and also the right use to be 



94 The Question of the Centuries 

made of intellect and wealth. We are to pour our treasures of 
wealth now on the altar of service for Jesus Christ. Our gold 
is never so honored as when consecrated to our divine Lord. 
Learning finds its noblest service when doing homage at his 
feet. The master-minds of the world to-day are worshipers of 
Jesus the Christ. Art and science, statesmanship and culture 
are crowned with undying honor as each bows at the feet of 
Christ, saying with Thomas, * i My Lord and my God. ' ' Let 
us with the Magi walk in the light we have, seeking Christ; 
let us with them ask for fuller light, and as we use the light 
thus granted, we shall most surely find the Christ we seek. 
Finding him, we shall know true Christian joy, and thus have 
even on earth a foretaste of heaven 's unspeakable joy, where 
we shall see Christ face to face, and be forever with and like 
him! 



PEC 23 i905 



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